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36th Infantry soldiers awarded for valor

CAMP RAMADI, Iraq — News of heavy gunfire and American casualties flowed quickly to Combat Outpost Grant.

Soldiers from 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, were engaged in a fierce battle in the city of Ramadi, and they needed help evacuating the wounded.

Staff Sgt. Jason Trumpower, Spc. Edward Reyes and the rest of the quick reaction force rushed to their aid from COP Grant.

As the team turned onto Spartan Street, their Bradley fighting vehicle hit an improvised explosive device. The blast seriously injured the driver, Spc. Vicente Ramirez, and destroyed the vehicle.

Reyes, the platoon medic, started treating Ramirez, who had suffered second- and third-degree burns and serious wounds to his ankles, needing two tourniquets.

Trumpower was pinned inside the turret but he continued to man the radios and maintain security.

Meanwhile, Staff Sgt. David Anderson had pushed out from Combat Outpost Iron to help the soldiers of 1st Platoon. On his way, he learned that Trumpower and his crew had been hit. He quickly went to their aid and loaded them into his vehicle. They were driving on Goat Street toward Camp Ramadi when a second IED exploded. The blast injured five more soldiers, set the Bradley on fire and destroyed the vehicle.

The actions that followed on that day, Sept. 24, 2006, earned Anderson a Silver Star, the third highest award for valor. Trumpower and Reyes each received a Bronze Star with “V” device.

They received the awards at a ceremony Jan. 27. Col. Sean MacFarland, commander of 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, lauded the men as heroes.

“It was an amazing, amazing fight you guys put up out there,” he said. “We all grow up watching war movies, all this Hollywood stuff, and we say, ‘Come on, who does that?’ Well, these guys did that.”

In the chaos after the second IED explosion, Anderson, 29, realized the internal communications system in his Bradley had been destroyed in the blast.

So he got out and was checking on his gunner and his driver when he heard screams coming from the back of the Bradley.

The soldiers were on fire.

Anderson tried to open the ramp from the driver’s hatch but the latches were destroyed in the blast. He ran to the back and tried to open the troop door, but it was jammed.

He then climbed on top of the burning vehicle. The soldiers inside had managed to open the cargo hatch because Reyes, 28, found the fire suppression handle and was able to stop the fire long enough for the hatch to be opened.

Anderson climbed into the burning Bradley and, with help from Trumpower, began pulling the soldiers to safety while Reyes continued to treat Ramirez in the burning vehicle. Anderson then returned to the driver’s hatch to remove his driver, who had no use of his legs, and again returned to help his gunner out of the vehicle.

When Anderson realized there were no coalition forces nearby, he ordered Trumpower, 31, to secure the casualties while he moved to the nearest house and cleared it of any enemy fighters.

Anderson, Trumpower and Reyes then moved the wounded soldiers into the house. Then Anderson returned to the vehicle to try the radios and retrieve a red smoke grenade to signal their location. But both were destroyed in the blast.

Ramirez was bleeding heavily and he was in danger of losing his feet or going into shock.

Realizing that he needed to get help right away, Anderson ran north along Goat Street to a tank that was parked about 400 meters away. When he couldn’t catch the attention of the tank crew, he continued running, this time down Farouk Way, to COP Grant. He flagged down a Bradley from 3rd Platoon and ran in front of the vehicle to lead it to his fellow soldiers.

Trumpower took charge while Anderson was gone and secured the casualties and defended the house from any potential attack.

The two NCOs and Reyes loaded their wounded comrades in the vehicles and rode with them to Camp Ramadi.

None of the soldiers were killed that day, and Ramirez is recovering — and even starting to stand up on his own again — at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Anderson said he was honored but embarrassed by the attention he’s received for his actions.

“I’m just glad I was there to take care of my soldiers and take them all home safely,” he said. “I don’t really like the publicity. I was just doing my job and what I was trained to do. I was hoping it would never happen.”

His instincts and training took him through the first part of the day, but he made a conscious decision to run down the street, alone, for help.

“I was worried more about the soldiers and the casualties we had, worried about whether an insurgent saw us go into the house,” he said. “Anything could have happened.”

Reyes said he doesn’t think about what happened that day.

“It was not another day at work, believe me,” he said. “It’s the last thing you want to happen, but taking care of patients, that’s my job. But it’s not something I want to do again.”

The awards ceremony brought back a flood of memories, Trumpower said.

“Since it happened on September 24, every day since then it’s been through my head, reliving it a hundred times a day,” he said. “It’s hard to think about good soldiers, my good friends getting hurt and burned alive.”

He credited Ramirez, who has been Trumpower’s driver for two years, for his courage despite his horrific wounds.

“He is probably the toughest little guy out there,” Trumpower said. “He never complained a single time.”