Corporal Tony Harris earns Medal of Military Valour
Corporal Tony Harris was a Canadian private on November 23, 2009 when his actions that day earned him the award he’s supposed to receive today in Ottawa from Governor General David Johnston, according to our Aunty Brat and the National Journal.
Then he heard a “boom.” And then he heard screams. And then he started running. Not away. Toward the blast.
“If you think about it, in a situation like that, it is kind of stupid running toward an explosion. Or you would think it was, but something just clicked in my mind. I wasn’t thinking.”
He was not wearing a helmet or a flak jacket either. Taliban bombs were falling; an empty shipping container that doubled as accommodation had been blasted to bits.
There was blood everywhere. Smoke. Screams. Six men were wounded. A seventh was dead. In war movies, time slows down. For Private Harris, time became a blur. He was acting, reacting, yanking an American from the burning, twisted metal wreck, tying off his severed femoral artery and lugging him across a 200-metre stretch of open ground before going back to grab another one.
“We were moving pretty quickly,” Cpl. Harris says, laughing. “I definitely didn’t want to be out there. Nobody did. It is strange. I didn’t really remember a thing about what happened until I was sitting in an armoured vehicle afterwards and having a cigarette.
“I was shaking all over. I had blood on my boots and blood on my pants. One of my buddies brought me a bag of Doritos — and then I was all good — but I couldn’t talk about it.”
Thanks, Tony, for being there for our troops.
Category: Real Soldiers
Awesome!
Our Canadian friends have bad ass forces! Thanks!
This award is equal to Silver Star (perhaps) and is in precedance below the Royal Crosses.
The Medal of Military Valour (French: Médaille de la vaillance militaire) is a decoration that is, within the Canadian system of honours, the third highest award for military valour,[1] and one of three honours for military valour gifted by the Canadian monarch, generally through his or her viceroy-in-Council. Created in 1993, the medal is presented to both living and deceased members of the Canadian Forces deemed to have carried out “an act of valour or devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy,”[2] and grants recipients the ability to use the post-nominal letters MMV.
Hardcore.
He received the medal two years ago. I wonder what he’s doing nowadays.
Two things particularly jumped out at me when I caught this article:
1) Another reminder that under fire, our Warriors don’t stop and check each other’s flags/nationalities. They really ARE Brothers In Arms.
2) This Corporal, same as so many Troops who are singled out for their Heroic acts on the battlefield, claimed: “I was just doing my job”.
A fine job it was, too..
Very nice. Served with Canadians in Haiti. Good troops.
He’s a bad ass, I betting that he would have just been happy with the bag of doritos. For real heroes the medals are just an afterthought.
Very well done!
Bravo Zulu, young man.
Damn, it’s dusty in here again.
Well done, young troop. HOOAH!!
God bless you Corporal, keep doing what you do.