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Army gives N.C. guardsman the Silver Star

The insurgents started firing as the soldiers searched the Iraqi village of Tahrir for a cell responsible for attacking coalition forces.

Fire from machine guns and rifles and rocket-propelled grenades slammed into the five-vehicle convoy of American and Iraqi soldiers. The 23 soldiers were boxed in on a narrow road, with two-story buildings on both sides.

Chief Warrant Officer 3 James B. Herring, detachment commander of Operational Detachment-Alpha 2084, was riding in the lead Humvee. He directed his driver, Spc. Stephen Haas, to keep the vehicle moving forward even as three insurgents continued to target it with machine guns.

Sgt. Broughton Aragon, the gunner on Herring’s truck, fired back and killed the three insurgents, but as the vehicle moved forward, it came under fire from more than 20 other insurgents behind a wall no more than 30 feet away.

It was Dec. 23, 2006, near Baqubah, Iraq. Herring’s actions during the ensuing battle would earn him a Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest award for valor. Herring, who returned from Iraq in May 2007, received the award during a ceremony Saturday in Weldon, N.C.

“I don’t really know that I deserve it,” Herring said. “So many guys do so many amazing things on the battlefield. I just felt it was my job … so I pretty much did what I had to do.”

The 46-year-old operations warrant officer with B Company, 3rd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group, is only the second soldier since World War II to receive the Silver Star while serving with the North Carolina National Guard.

In his civilian life, Herring, of Roanoke Rapids, N.C., is a decorated law enforcement officer in the Chesterfield County Police Department in Virginia. He is currently on leave from his civilian job and on active duty with the North Carolina Guard, said Capt. Christopher Joyner, the deputy state public affairs officer.

As the insurgents fired on the soldiers, Aragon, the gunner, continued to fire back on his .50-caliber machine gun, according to the narrative accompanying the Silver Star. But enemy fire penetrated the vehicle and Haas was shot through his right thigh. When the vehicle came to a stop, Herring saw several other attackers spraying machine-gun fire at his vehicle from less than 165 feet away. Realizing that Aragon was facing the opposite direction, Herring jumped out of the Humvee and shot and killed two enemy machine gunners. the other insurgents abandoned their positions and ran to nearby buildings.

Meanwhile, a disabled Iraqi vehicle blocked the other troops from moving forward to help Herring and the soldiers in his truck. As Herring assessed the situation, he realized Haas was in need of immediate medical attention.

Herring said he feared the bullet had hit Haas’ femoral artery.

“He immediately turned white and he couldn’t drive,” Herring said.

“With complete disregard for his personal safety and under constant well-aimed small-arms and machine-gun fire and a volley of rocket-propelled grenades, CW3 Herring exited the relative safety of the vehicle for a second time,” according to the narrative. “He was knocked to the ground by the concussion of an impacting rocket-propelled grenade, but got up and continued to fire and maneuver, alone, with only his vehicle gunner to provide suppressive fire to get to the driver’s side.”

When he got there, Herring placed Haas in the back seat so the medic, Sgt. 1st Class John Masson, could continue to treat him, then climbed into the driver’s seat, advised his higher headquarters of the situation, called for medical evacuation and drove the vehicle back to Forward Operating Base Gabe.

“As a result of his decisive and heroic actions, CW3 Herring swung the tide of the engagement against a prepared enemy, killing many and preventing other members of the combined force from being killed or wounded,” according to the narrative.

There were no other injuries that day, and Haas has recovered.

Herring said his soldiers deserve the credit.

“I think that we spent about 400,000 minutes in Iraq and you get recognized for something that took three minutes,” he said. “I want to reiterate I wasn’t the only hero out there. All those guys out there are heroes to me. They did things that warrant the same award, in my opinion.”

Related reading

Read the full Army narrative accompanying the award

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Herring’s heroism and the award