Valor Friday

Distinguished Service Cross

Mason’s back, and he offered two candidates for Valor Friday. Both are more than deserving of the post, and I had to sleep on it to make the call. So today’s Valor Friday honors Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jason Myers, USA, and his actions in Afghanistan meriting not one, but two Distinguished Service Crosses, the Army’s equivalent to a Service Cross and second only to the Medal of Honor.
Once again Mason has done the research behind the awards, and presents them for all to appreciate.

Mason

On May 8th, 2019 an American soldier was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross (the second highest award for combat valor, behind only the Medal of Honor) in a ceremony at the John F Kennedy Auditorium at Fort Bragg, NC. Normally the presentation of an award as prestigious as this is news enough. In the case of this soldier, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jason Myers, it’s especially noteworthy as this was his second Distinguished Service Cross. He is now the only soldier on active duty with two DSCs.

With a home of record of West Perry, Pennsylvania, CWO3 Myers reminds us why the Green Berets of the Army Special Forces call themselves “quiet professionals”. I can find little information on CWO3 Myers civilian life or his career, other than his two DSC awards.

From reading his uniform, I can see Two Bronze Stars (at least one w/ V), two Purple Hearts, a Meritorious Service Medal, and both the Combat Infantryman Badge as well as the Combat Medical Badge. There’s also an abundance of stars on his Iraq and Afghanistan Campaign Medals, consistent with the life of a special operations soldier post-9/11. He’s got two National Defense Service medals and several knots on his Army Good Conduct Medal, so he’s been at this soldiering since at least the mid-90’s.

Myers received his first DSC for actions 27 March, 2010. Serving as a Warrant Officer 1, he was Assistant Detachment Commander for Operational Detachment Alpha 3321 (ODA-3321), Special Operations Task Force-East in Khost Province, Afghanistan. He distinguished himself in combat during a joint patrol with members of the Afghan National Police.

While on patrol they were ambushed by between 75 and 100 insurgents. The insurgents had targeted the lead vehicle and succeeded in disabling it, putting the rest of the column into the enemy’s kill zone. During the intense early moments of the fight, an unarmored truck became disabled due to the volume of enemy fire.

Myers, with no regard for his own safety, rushed to the disabled vehicle. There he found two Afghan policemen, one seriously wounded with a gunshot wound to his right leg. Myers grabbed the injured man and dragged him 20-some meters through a hail of enemy gunfire to a position of relative safety, all the while ignoring the many shrapnel wounds he was receiving from the assault.

Myers then went back to the disabled truck, rushing through this field of fire again, and probably sustaining still more shrapnel injuries, to turn the steering wheel on the truck. This allowed them to push the disabled vehicle into a ravine, clearing a path for the pinned down convoy to advance.

Still dismounted, he advanced 100 meters to provide covering fire for the Afghan police. This allowed them to mount up in their vehicles and get out of the kill zone. He remained, on foot, in the kill zone continuing to provide supporting fire and relaying verbal information to his commander.

A year and a half later, on the night of 10 November into 11 November, 2011, now a Chief Warrant Officer 2, Myers was back in Afghanistan (or he never left, one is equally as likely for a man like this). While serving as Assistant Detachment Commander, Operational Detachment Alpha-3321, Special Operations Task Force-East.

In the middle of the afternoon on the 10th, insurgents had started an attack on the civilian Chamkani District Center near their location. Initially thinking it might be bait to draw troops out for an ambush, they soon realized it was a targeted attack on the civilian district. They moved out and notified host nation forces nearby to include the Afghan national police, a special tactics team, and the Afghan National Army Commando Corps.

Myers’ team went to the west end of the center where they immediately came under heavy fire. Inside the center, the insurgents had taken over several buildings and had established defensive firing positions. Facing accurate small arms, light machine gun, and rocket propelled grenade attack, Myers assembled a five man assault team of two US Army Special Forces and three Afghan Commandos.

He ordered a separate commando force, already mounted in an armored vehicle to move to the west entry control point (ECP). Along the way, Myers told the local civilians running their shops to close down. Despite taking accurate enemy fire during this, he was able to gather intelligence that 5-10 enemy insurgents had seized the district center and had secured numerous hostages. Through the hail of gunfire and grenade onslaught, learned from a local police chief that three of the insurgent hostage takers were wearing suicide vests and in possession of a vehicle borne improvised explosive device (VBIED).

Securing the ECP, under intense fire, Myers’ and his five men moved quickly (“bounded” as the citation reads) to the south entrance of the district center. Myers personally led the assault into the lobby where one of his uniformed police comrades kicked open a door and came face-to-face with two insurgents who opened fire on him with their AK-47s in full automatic.

The uniformed policeman closed the door, which did nothing to stop the two armed insurgents inside from laying down suppressive fire through the door. This happened as the team began to also take fire from a second floor balcony.

Recognizing they were stalled and in the open, being fired on from two positions, Myers took the initiative. When one of his team members opened the door on the room with the two insurgents in it and threw a fragmentation grenade, immediately after the grenade blew, Myers rushed past the stalled police personnel and into the room in flagrant disregard for his own safety.

The room was clouded with dust. Myers identified one dead insurgent, but couldn’t find the second. As the dust settled, he found a long rectangular room. He moved deeper into the room to search for the armed insurgent he knew was in there.

The insurgent had barricaded himself and began throwing grenades at Chief Myers. As the first live grenade flew past his head he, without regard to his own safety, aggressively closed ranks with the insurgent and engaged him with his rifle.

As the insurgent threw a second grenade, Myers dove for cover. Finding himself and the insurgent separated by solid cover. The first grenade exploded near the door. The second grenade detonated moments later, sending shrapnel into Myers’ arms, hands, legs, and buttocks.

Using the cloud of debris caused by the two explosions to his advantage, he moved from his cover to engage the insurgent, killing him.

After coming out of the room, and ignoring his numerous wounds, he ordered a grenade to be thrown to cover his team’s retreat from the building. They were able to back out, with Myers providing supporting fire, to the entry control point without sustaining any additional casualties.

The ODA then called in additional personnel while Myers’ wounds were attended to. That team was able to rescue nine hostages from the DC building. After the first group of hostages were out safely, Myers took a team to the building where they deployed a ladder to the second story, rescuing another five hostages.

With all hostages rescued, Myers personally led a small assault force to clear four of the five buildings of the compound. In the fifth and final building a booby trapped RPG and grenade detonated, injuring five members of the team, including Myers.

Ignoring his own injuries, Mister Myers set up a casualty collection point and began to treat the wounded. He also ordered the Afghan security forces to halt clearing until morning.

After sunrise, Myers made his third trip into the building, more than 15 hours after the intense operation started. They cleared it successfully without further casualties. He then led the explosive ordnance disposal operation at the building.

His selfless actions assaulting an insurgent-occupied building, while repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire, undoubtedly helped secure the freedom of 15 hostages, neutralized the insurgent forces, and minimized friendly casualties. At the end of the day, five Americans were wounded, 11 Afghans were wounded, and three Afghan police had been killed.

For this action he initially received the Silver Star in 2014. This was upgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross in 2019 during an awards review.

After his award ceremony for the second DSC, Myers is quoted by the The Fayetteville Observer as saying, “I’ve always been fortunate. I’ve always been surrounded by the best officers and the best (noncommissioned officers) in the Army. And with multiple deployments to the same area, we knew the locals. We had a lot of rapport and these longstanding relationships with some of these people, so there was a lot of trust and history between us, the locals and the partner forces.”

Quiet professional indeed. Salute, Chief Myers.

Distinguished Service Cross
AWARDED FOR ACTIONS
DURING Global War on Terror
Service: Army
Battalion: 3d Battalion
GENERAL ORDERS:
CITATION:
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Warrant Officer 1 (WO-1) Jason W. Myers, United States Army, for acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Assistant Detachment Commander for Operational Detachment Alpha 3321 (ODA-3321), Special Operations Task Force-East during combat operations against an armed enemy in Khost Province, Afghanistan, on 27 March 2010. During a joint ground vehicle patrol with members of the Afghan National Police, Warrant Officer One Myers’ detachment was ambushed by an enemy force of approximately 75 to 100 insurgents, who promptly disabled the lead vehicle which exposed the entire column to an enemy kill zone. As the patrol was barraged by heavy volumes of enemy fire, an unarmored truck became disabled, further hindering the patrol’s movement. With complete disregard for his own personal safety, he ran forward to the disabled truck and found two Afghan National Police officers taking cover behind the truck, one of whom had a serious gunshot wound to his right leg. He dragged the wounded policeman 20 meters through intense enemy fire to temporary safety, ignoring multiple shrapnel wounds he sustained during the attack. Warrant Officer One Myers returned to the disabled truck and turned the steering wheel, allowing the truck to be pushed into a ravine, clearing the path to advance. Still dismounted, he moved ahead without cover for over 100 meters while engaging the enemy, which allowed the Afghan policemen pinned down by enemy fire to mount their vehicles and advance the patrol. He continued on foot through the kill zone, providing supporting fire to the patrol and relaying verbal communication to his commander. His heroism inspired his teammates to continue to fight and maneuver the patrol out of the kill zone. Warrant Officer One Myers’ actions are in keeping with the finest traditions of military service and reflect distinct credit upon himself, Operational Detachment Alpha 3321, Special Operations Task Force-East, United States Forces-Afghanistan and the United States Army.

Silver Star
(Award has since been upgraded to a DSC, will update the citation when it’s posted)
AWARDED FOR ACTIONS
DURING Global War on Terror
Service: Army
Battalion: 3d Battalion
GENERAL ORDERS:
CITATION:
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918 (amended by an act of July 25, 1963), takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Chief Warrant Officer Jason W. Myers, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in connection with military operations against the enemy on 10 November 2011, while serving as Assistant Detachment Commander, Operational Detachment Alpha-3321, Special Operations Task Force-East, in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. Mister Myers distinguished himself by exposing himself to accurate enemy fire multiple times while maneuvering to Chamkani District Center where he courageously entered on 3 separate occasions throughout the night with multiple suicide bombers barricaded inside to rescue 15 hostages. His actions are in keeping with the finest traditions of military heroism and reflect distinct credit upon himself, the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force Afghanistan, the Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command-Afghanistan, The United States Forces-Afghanistan, and the United States Army.

Hand salute. Ready, Two!

Category: Afghanistan, Army, Bravo Zulu, Guest Post, Terror War, The Warrior Code, Valor