SFC Matthew Loheide awarded Silver Star
Ken sends us a link to an article about SFC Matthew Loheide who was awarded the Silver Star for his actions in a fire fight in Afghanistan. The Daily Mail;
Loheide and others were injured when a bomb dropped on their position during his platoon’s first big mission in June of 2010.
Despite his injuries and under fire, Loheide marked a landing zone for helicopters to evacuate the wounded and led his soldiers to safety.
‘I remember hearing the jet coming in,’ Loheide recalled to the Leaf Chronicle. ‘I can even remember hearing the bomb come in. And then everything went black.’
When his vision finally returned he saw immediate identified three causalities near him.
But they were still under fire.
Pressing on Loheide led a movement down the mountain to mark a landing zone for helicopters to evacuate the wounded.
SFC Loheide turned from the award ceremony to reenlist because;
‘Being a platoon sergeant is one of those things. I feel after this I can move on and do great things, but I’ll never have that fulfilling feeling of leading a large group of men again.’
I know that feeling – that anything else I accomplish in this life doesn’t compare to leading a platoon in combat.
Category: Real Soldiers
The old saying, that “they don’t make ’em like they used to,” is obviously not true – would have proud and honored to serve with either the author of this post, (JL) or SFC Loheide.
Well done, SFC Loheide. This old soldier salutes you.
Good drills that man. What amazes me is that this story got play in the Daily Mail, which is a national UK paper, but the only other source was the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle-which at best is a regional paper for that part of Tennessee and Kentucky. Did our national media not think there was a story worth telling here? Good on the Brits for featuring this.
Damn good job, SFC Loheide, NCO’s LEAD THE WAY!!