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Master sgt. gets DSC for Afghanistan bravery

In a battle that would last more than 17 hours, with intense gunfire popping all around, then-Sgt. 1st Class Brendan O’Connor stood before an open field and considered his options for reaching two soldiers who lay wounded in a vineyard on the other side.

A 14-inch ditch ran almost the length of the 200-foot agricultural field. He saw a slight elevation toward the end of the ditch that he knew would force him to stand up and run for it.

As he slithered forward on his belly, ignoring the bullets grazing the grass above his head, his body armor began gathering dirt and raising his profile.

“All my ammo and magazines and grenade pouches were like a plow, I couldn’t get low enough to the ground. So I crawl back to cover, remove my body armor and crawl across and made that last dash once the ditch ran out,” said O’Connor, now 47 and a master sergeant. He was senior medical sergeant with Operational Detachment Alpha 765, 2nd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), at the time of the battle.

His team, their attachments, interpreters and dozens of Afghan soldiers were in a relentless, complex fight on June 24, 2006, against more than 200 Taliban fighters who had ambushed them from multiple positions starting the night before.

The 7th Group soldiers were near Pashmul in the Panjawai District, to capture or kill a Taliban commander, the objective of Operation Kaika.

O’Connor reached the wounded soldiers and rescued them. Then he was faced with the death of his team sergeant, Master Sgt. Tom Maholic, who was killed in another part of the sprawling farm village while O’Connor was crawling across the field in the dusky late afternoon.

O’Connor took over for Maholic and, from his isolated position away from the rest of the team, coordinated medical treatment and evacuation for the wounded, organized the movement of ammunition from a re-supply aircraft and eventually led the team to safety several hours later under the cover of darkness through Taliban positions.

Almost two years later, on April 30 at Fort Bragg, N.C., O’Connor was recognized for his gallantry in battle with a Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second-highest award for valor in combat.

Soldiers with ODA 765 were also awarded four Silver Star medals, four Bronze Star Medals with “V” devices and three Purple Hearts.

Reflecting on the meaning of his prestigious award, O’Connor said that strong bonds in battle transcend the ordinary things most people know.

“In that time and that place, there’s a great intensity of emotion in friendships that are formed in combat,” he said.

He hadn’t known Maholic very long, O’Connor said, but he did know that Maholic “was kind of a warrior poet.”

“He and I shared a love of music, we talked about our families, we were both from the north, he was from Pennsylvania, I am from New Jersey. So it’s not the amount of time I knew him, but the quality,” O’Connor told Army Times. “He was a truly quality, quality person. He is missed sorely by his friends, but mostly by his young son and beautiful wife.”

The battle

O’Connor recalled the scene he found after his low-crawl through the field. He reached Staff Sgt. Joe Fuerst, an infantryman with the Florida National Guard who was embedded with the ODA, and team medic Staff Sgt. Matt Binney.

Binney had been shot in the back of the head, the wrist and shoulder. Another shot in the front struck and destroyed his M4. A shot in the back emptied his Camelbak water bladder. Six bullet holes were found in his pants.

Maj. Sheffield Ford, who was a captain at the time and leader of ODA 765, credited O’Connor with rallying Binney back to life.

“Matt was a medic, he knew what was going on with his body. He had come to the realization that his body was starting to shut down. He had lost the feeling in his legs from his own blood loss but he knew at the same time that his situation wasn’t as dire as Joe’s,” Ford said. “Brendan regenerated him, it gave him that hope again when he heard Brendan’s voice and that’s when he started moving and pushing and doing whatever Brendan was telling him to do.”

Fuerst was struck with a rocket-propelled grenade that didn’t explode, O’Connor said. He suffered “massive blunt trauma” and was mortally wounded. It was too late to save him, even though someone nearby had tied on a neckerchief as a makeshift tourniquet. That person may have been an interpreter who was engaged in the fight, Ford said.

O’Connor estimated that about 90 minutes had passed since Fuerst was struck with the RPG.

“When I got out to him he was pretty much unconscious, unresponsive and his vital signs were very dire, grave,” O’Connor said quietly.

Receiving the DSC, O’Connor said, “is somewhat bittersweet because I can’t wear this medal and think about what’s gone before without mourning the loss of friends.”

O’Connor became the second soldier to be awarded the DSC for actions in Afghanistan.

The first was Maj. Mark Mitchell, of 5th Special Forces Group, in 2003, according to U.S. Army Special Operations Command.

Related reading:

O’Connor’s official citation