Silver Stars for SFC Andrew Busic and CWO3 Mark Colbert
The Olympian reports that the Army awarded Silver Stars to Sergeant First Class Andrew Busic and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Mark Colbert of the 1st Special Forces Group from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, for their actions on Forward Operating Base Ghazni back on August 28th when a massive attack struck the base with RPGs and suicide bombers. They stood in the breach until they could be reinforced.
Busic and two others jumped in a Toyota Tacoma pickup to join in the attack. They immediately took fire from two directions, and turned to follow Colbert in an all-terrain vehicle with two more operators toward the breach.
Busic’s team hit a “hail of gunfire.” The operators got out of the truck and into a shootout.
Colbert’s team encountered one group of insurgents and killed three. They turned a corner and found a group of six more.
One of his partners was shot in the leg and in the head, though a helmet stopped the bullet.
Colbert “instantly exposed himself into the direct line of fire to pull his fellow special operator behind cover, saving his life,” the Army’s narrative says. That’s when he was shot in the leg.
Busic’s team helped by placing the pickup between Colbert’s position and the enemy’s. Busic rushed the attackers to give cover to Colbert as he helped the wounded sailor.
More troops followed, and soldiers managed to secure the breach.
From the Army Times;
More than 20 troops stormed the area, including five Special Forces soldiers from 1st Group, Polish troops and Staff Sgt. Michael H. Ollis, from the 10th Mountain Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team.
Ollis, who died shielding a Polish officer from a suicide bomber during the assault, was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. He was the sole American killed in the attack.
Category: Real Soldiers
Thank you, gentlemen. Well done!
More heroes who don’t wear capes and tights.
Bravo Zulu troops.
Thank you Soldiers! God go with you. Thank you for serving and for serving so heroically.
@2 Frankly you are right, the true men of America for our kids to look up to as examples of real life heroes.
SFC Busic is officially a badass, saw him that day running around with a bullet in his leg.
Well done, gentlemen! HOOAH!
Great story, I dont think they need to use the term “operator” as a replacement for Soldier. Probably a generational thing.
Well done gents!
Damn! Very well done, troops! Hooah!
Well done Gentlemen(?). This is Army leadership at it’s finest. Joe
Well done, indeed. Will be praying for SSG Ollis’s family to be comforted.
@10 OldSoldier54 I am with you there. God’s peace and comfort in this sad time for the family of SSG Ollis.
God bless these men and their sacrifices.
Real soldiers and true heroes, not poser POS trash. Great to see this post. I would bet you dollars to donuts they are humble men, that do not talk up their exploits.
Couldn’t fit brass balls into US Army dress uniform.
Hooah!
“I’m not so sure about that [that long, repeated deployments to the front lines have had on the Army’s soldiers and their leaders].”
This may not completely address the issue, but: Controlling for age, education, pre-service criminal record, rank, and length of service, there appears to be no significant difference re the criminal records (during and after service) of those who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan and those who had not; however, for those served in combat roles, compared with those who had not been so deployed, the former appear (a) to be more likely to commit criminal violent offenses (again, during and after service), and also (b) more likely to have a record of pre-service violence. (This isn’t terribly surprising, since (duh!) the more “adventurous” types — those more likely to engage in risky behavior — seem more likely to volunteer for combat service.) Moreover, (a) there’s at least some correlation between traumatic brain injury and propensity for crime, and (b) blast exposure increases linearly with the number of firefights.
Olympian T.J. Oshie said
“The American heroes are wearing camo. That’s not me.”
@14 FatCircles: need a wheelbarrow for each of those soldiers to carry those brass balls. Big ones indeed.