Valor Friday
U.S. Army Staff Sergeant David G. Bellavia poses for his official portrait in the Army portrait studio at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., June 26, 2019. Staff Sergeant David G. Bellavia received the Medal of Honor from President Donald J. Trump at the White House on June 25, 2019 for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Staff Sergeant David G. Bellavia distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty on November 10, 2004, while serving as squad leader in support of Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah, Iraq. (U.S. Army photo by Monica King)
Once more my house is a mess of sick people. I spent most of Wednesday evening throwing up, not even a full two weeks after the last go round of food poisoning. I tell ya, having little kids seems to be a recipe for just constant illness. With that in mind, you’ll have to forgive me once again for not devoting the proper time to this week’s Valor Friday piece.
Instead, I’m going to bring you a bit of story from Staff Sergeant David Bellavia, who spoke with Military Times about his experiences in Iraq that led to him receiving the Medal of Honor. He’s the only person (so far) from that war to have lived to receive it.
Category: Army, Historical, Medal of Honor, Valor, We Remember
As I recall, when my sons were little, they were walking Petrie dishes. Good luck Mason and feel better soon
My wife was a licensed Daycare provider(retired). On average, She had 10 of those little plague carriers in the house Monday through Friday (wile I worked the night shift at a distribution warehouse). The snot ran freely. In some ways I’m glad that over, other times not so much.
Other than Smith he is the only CMH from Iraq that didn’t get blown up.
Amazing grace under fire. Must have nerves of steel.
I was in C 2/2 Inf for OIF II, sadly our company got left behind on FOB Normandy to cover down on the entire BN AOR, which sucked. I didn’t know SSG Bellavia personally, but I did know one or two guys in A Co. Blows my mind that this was all 20 years ago. I feel like those Vietnam vets that some of my friends fathers were when I was growing up.
I was looking at the calendar this morning and thinking exactly the same thing. Things have come full circle and I’m now that old veteran guy in the neighbrhood. 22 years since my first “war on terror” deployment. Hey, I’m still kicking, so that’s a win.
My final deployment (more than 10 years ago) a bunch of guys on the team were brought in from the retired lists. Three has been in Somalia and one has actually been in the invasion of Grenada. I was one of several PGW vets but there was one really old guy who had been on Eagle Claw and the invasion of Panama.
That guy was actually scary to the younger soldiers who oscillated between treating him like some kind of grumpy demigod and a ranting crazy old uncle. He gave zero fucks about literally everything, least of all any kind of PC bullshit. He was certainly the last of a dying breed, you just don’t see those anymore.
“That guy was actually scary to the younger soldiers who oscillated between treating him like some kind of grumpy demigod and a ranting crazy old uncle.”
I kinda got that treatment my last trip to Iraq (2008-2009). Had a bunch of young scared troopies, I’d served in Desert Storm, Somalia, Sarajevo, Afghanistan, and this was trip #3 to Iraq. They also knew I had their back no matter what. 1SG didn’t like the fact that they hung “Grampa” on me as a call sign. Considering they got the idea from “We Were Soldiers”, I wore it as a badge of honor.
But you were always such a sweetheart SFC D. Hope you are doing well.
Saw him speaking at the junior college I was going to back around 2011. When he was done I dropped a 3rd Brigade coin I had gotten in his hand. We spent the next 20 minutes talking and asking about guys we knew mutually and how they were doing while the reporters got pissed off that they couldn’t talk to him right then and there.
I’ve got a Doooooks!(remember that from Brigade formations?) coin laying around somewhere,Col Petard gave it to me up in Mosul when C 2/2 got sent up there for the elections in Jan of 05, was a shitty consolation prize for not getting to go to Fallujah
“Judged by what you do everyday…” Testify! It does take Courage to have integrity. Sadly, integrity seems to be in short supply these days.
Wounded yet still carried the fight to the enemy. SALUTE!
Thanks again, Mason. Draw yourself an extry ration of medicine from my personal Class VI Stores. May not cure you, but it will make you feel better…or not care that you’re sick.
Ny-Quil and Jameson’s have the same active ingredient. Doesn’t cure a damn thing, but it erases alllllll the leftover fucks.
Thank God we still have people that realize their duty as an
American soldier.
“U.S. Army Staff Sergeant David G. Bellavia poses for his official portrait”
That’s no pose.
I read his book “House to House” years ago and still have the paperback somewhere. I’ve been on this site for 15 years now and seem to recall some comment here or elsewhere trying to call him out for the actions that led to his then-award of the Silver Star, way back when. I’m pretty certain that those naysayers and armchair generals were silenced by the upgrade to the MOH. The book goes into graphic detail about his actions, admittedly one of the things his critics showcased, as there were no witnesses once he went sua sponte.
Musta been somewhere else I saw the BS comments; I wanted to ensure my memory was correct and saw nothing other than Jonn’s mentions of Bellavia being a good friend to the blog going back to 2008-ish. If there were comments made here, I fully suspect they were the trolls of the day circa 2008-2013. Ah, the days of Matthis Chiroux, et. al…