| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan |
| Navy doc awarded Silver Star |
| 2013-05-04 |
| When the bomb blasted his truck into the air and insurgents started shooting, “Doc Flores” went to work. The Navy hospital corpsman was deafened by the explosion. He couldn’t hear the bullets whizzing by, but he saw his Marines lying in the street. A Hero and corpsman, not a "corpseman" Petty Officer 1st Class Benny Flores ran back and forth four times through gunfire to administer aid and help the wounded take cover from the ambush, military officials said. Blood from his own shrapnel wounds flowed down his arm, mingling with the blood of his comrades smeared across his tattered uniform sleeves. For his actions April 28, 2012 in southwestern Afghanistan, Flores was awarded the Silver Star Friday at Camp Pendleton. He was selected for the nation’s third-highest medal for valor in combat because of the lifesaving medical care he provided several U.S. and Afghan troops despite heavy gunfire and his own serious injuries, the Marine Corps announced. Flores, a soft-spoken, humble sailor who grew up in Guam and Tinian, didn’t wake up that morning thinking “today’s the day I’m going to be a hero,” Maj. Gen. Charles Mark Gurganus said at the ceremony on the 1st Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company parade deck. Yet “even with his own wounds, he saw what needed to be done and he acted,” demonstrating extraordinary bravery and selflessness, Gurganus said. Flores, now 30, was the field service medical technician for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force that day in the Zaranj district of Nimruz province, a relatively peaceful area near Iran. The homemade bomb exploded next to the passenger door of the cab where Marine Master Sgt. Scott Pruitt was seated. The 38-year-old military accountant from Camp Pendleton had volunteered for the combat tour, his first. He was killed on the eve of his retirement. Damn. RIP Master Sgt Pruitt. |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #4 ...and unlike the man with the magic hat, PO Flores didn't write his own award submission, except in deeds. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2013-05-04 22:17 |
| #3 Richard,I know what you mean. John F'n Kerry got a Silver Star for shooting a wounded teenager in the back. And a Purple Heart for a scratch. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2013-05-04 15:48 |
| #2 I don't like to suggest decoration inflation but Silver Star seems a bit minimal here. |
| Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2013-05-04 15:24 |
| #1 There are few more brave than the US Navy corpsman. They have been covering themselves in well deserved honor, high levels of respect and admiration for decades. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-05-04 13:16 |