Staff Sgt. Justin Gallegos to receive the Distinguished Service Cross
The 5 year eligibility requirement to be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross had expired in the case of Army Staff Sergeant Justin Gallegos. According to military.com both houses of Congress have passed bills that would waive the time restriction in his case.
Lawmakers have cleared the way for the posthumous awarding of the nation’s second-highest valor medal to a U.S. Army staff sergeant for his bravery during the deadly 2009 battle for Combat Outpost Keating in Afghanistan, according to the fiscal 2019 defense budget.
The final version of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2019 included a provision that would award the Distinguished Service Cross to Justin Gallegos for his heroism. Both the House and Senate versions of the bill contained similar provisions supporting Gallegos, who fought repulse a determined Taliban assault at the COP, located in Afghanistan’s eastern Nuristan province.
Staff Sergeant Gallegos was initially awarded the Silver Star, it will now be upgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross.
His profile on togetherweserved
Category: Military issues, Terror War
Damn straight.
Those men fought to their last round.
Solid upgrade.
Much has been written about the Taliban’s large-force attack on the troopers at Camp Keating in October 2009. Every single one of those troopers became the epitome of the American Fighting Man at his best. And all fought like hell. The 13-hour-long battle resulted in two Medals of Honor, nine Silver Stars and, now, a DSC.
First in depth I saw on COP Keating was an article in The AL Magazine. Seemed to be a lot of fighting like hell on the part of the troops. IIRC there was talk of tactical errors from higher up on the poor placement of that COP. Also, some of the troops had pushed for up grade for SSG Gallegos. So many casualties that there wasn’t enough witnesses. Brings to mind LZ-XRAY. Pity, the more things change, the more they seem the same. Thabk God that such men lived. RIP
Thank not Thabk
God Bless EVERY ONE OF THEM!
Well Done SSGT Gallegos
Happy looking young man with stones of steel. I am genuinely humbled by your heroism, warrior. Fair winds and following seas.
Served your country well SSGT Gallegos, and may you
RIP.
Well deserving of the DSC. Glad to see this upgrade.
(Hopefully the TAH resident Village Idiot will stay off of this thread and spare us for once from listening to him disrespectfully whine about this courageous Soldier’s upgraded award.)
Well done Staff Sergeant! Damned well done indeed.
Well deserved. Good man.
Glad to see its not a posthumous award. Well done Soldier.
Unfortunately, it is.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/08/02/lawmakers-clear-way-fallen-soldier-receive-distinguished-service-cross.html
Ah. So it is. Damn.
I thought I read where it was posthumous? Thank God it is not!!
HOOAH !!!!!
SSG
And if he were to be asked about his role in the battle, he probably would say: “just doing the job I was trained for and to protect my buddies.”
Thank you for your service, SSG Gallegos.
Rest in peace.
This site is still not recognizing me? I post and it does not come up until I get off the site and come back, then sometimes my post is there?