Photo By Enrique Vasquez | On 15 April, 2022, Maj. Gen. Maria B. Barrett (left), NETCOM Commanding General pinned...... read more read more
FORT HUACHUCA, Ariz.- When a person joins the military, they might expect to be in a combat situation; however, no one ever imagines what it will be like once the incoming rockets or warhead-laden missiles start impacting around you. And no one ever expects to know what it feels like to experience the concussion and blast waves of detonations until one ultimately realizes they have potentially just become a casualty.
Such is the case with Staff Sgt. Charles S. Gipson, G1 Operations and Command Programs NCO for HHC, Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM), who was presented the Purple Heart Medal on 15 April 2022 by Maj. Gen. Maria B. Barrett, NETCOM Commanding General. Gipson received the Purple Heart for injuries sustained during the January 2020 Iranian missile attack on Al Asad Airbase in Iraq.
“It was a very interesting time in CENTCOM [Central Forces Command], with Iranian aggression taking place and U.S. Forces determining how they were going to deter those aggressions.”
“CENTCOM had an opportunity to make a drone strike against Major General [Qasem] Soleimani, the Iranian head of the Quds Force, the elite Quds Force. That was five days prior to the attack on Al Asad. We anticipated a retaliatory strike,” said Barrett.
“Then came some decisions about when do we start protecting the force, moving the aircraft at Al Asad. Move them too soon and they [the Iranians] are going to cancel the attack; they’re just going to hold off for another day. Let them waste those theater ballistic missiles [we thought] but we still want to protect the force.”
“So at the appropriate time, two-thousand Service Members at Al Asad with some contractors [civilians] as well [were] moved to shelters and bunkers away from the facilities believed to be targeted by the sixteen hundred pound warheads,” recalled Barrett during the ceremony.”
“Sixteen missiles were aimed at Al Asad, eleven hit, eighty minutes the attack lasted,” said Barrett.
Gipson came under hostile fire, while serving as a of member of Task Force Scarecrow assigned to provide security to Al Asad during the evacuation phase of the base’s critical war-fighting assets and personnel prior to the attack. Tasked to stay behind, Gipson endured eleven close proximity missile impacts.
According to Gipson staying behind was just part of his job as he explains how the events unfolded that faithful night the rockets came to Al Asad.
“So it [the attack] was in response to [Iranian] Major General [Qasem] Soleimani being killed by a drone strike. Not sure the logistics of that experience, but Iran retaliated and they struck our camp [Al Asad Airbase],” said Gipson.
“We didn't really have a lot of time [to prepare]. I [had] just come off a 24-hour shift. So really, we only had an hour to prepare for what was already going on. It was pretty obvious; once you saw the birds [aircraft and helicopters] leaving the airfield, it was just like a highway with everyone [going through] rush hour traffic,” said Gipson.
“No one really was upset that we were staying because we had a job to do and we did it. It was a two-part effort. So not only did we make sure that the other units were evacuated but we also made sure that we were taking care of each other.”
When asked about the experience and what his body felt like with the missiles going off, Gipson explained that he never had to really explain it but tried his best to tell about what he went through.
“It felt like you had a headache that just never really went away and it was constant throughout the night. I didn’t even know it [the attack] was 80 minutes [long], it felt like hours. Your body gets rocked around, you don’t really feel it; I was told it was the blast waves but what I learned since then, it is the concussion force [that causes the injury].”
“So it’s [like] pounding, after pounding, after pounding and you don't see it; you just feel it. And for everybody it hits a little different. It might hit you at the beginning; it might hit you a few days later. Some people [feel it] a few weeks later,” said Gipson.
“It’s a completely different experience that you don’t train for; there is no military training that can train you for a TBM [Tactical Ballistic Missile] attack.”
Asked how he felt about being presented the Purple Heart, Gipson expressed a sincere appreciation for being alive.
“I feel blessed to be able to receive it during my lifetime. There are a lot of people that receive it [the Purple Heart] posthumously,” said Gipson.
Attending the ceremony were Gipson’s wife Amanda, son Charles II, father Charles Eberhardt II and mother Darlene Eberhardt.
Gipson’s father was very grateful for being able to witness his son receive the Purple Heart.
“Thanks to the military for the recognition. As a parent, who had a son deployed in in harm's [way] and not being able to communicate with that child for more than a week; this just brings back those memories and memories of [all] those soldiers, who [have] lost their lives all around the world protecting our constitution. I want to say, thank you to everybody,” said Charles Eberhardt.
Gipson is a native of Cleveland, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana. He attended high school at Brebeuf Jesuit College Preparatory School and played college baseball at Northern Kentucky University. Gipson enlisted in the United States Army in late 2014 and attended both Basic Combat Training and Advanced Individual Training as a Human resources Specialist at Fort Jackson South Carolina.
After his first stateside assignment and as part of the 82nd Airborne Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB); Gipson would later find himself deployed to Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) as part of Task Force Scarecrow.
| Date Taken: | 04.15.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 04.26.2022 00:21 |
| Story ID: | 419250 |
| Location: | SIERRA VISTA-FORT HUACHUCA AIRPORT, AZ, US |
| Hometown: | CLEVELAND, OH, US |
| Hometown: | INDIANAPOLIS, IN, US |
| Web Views: | 131 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, NETCOM NCO Receives Purple Heart, by Enrique Vasquez, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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