02-14-2011, 15:15
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#1
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Quiet Professional
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Location: Texas
Posts: 656
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Petraeus pins Silver Star on Special Forces Soldier in Kandahar
2/14/2011 By CJSOTF-A Public Affairs
A member of 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Bragg, N.C., was awarded the nation’s third highest medal for valor by Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander, International Security Assistance Force and commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan, during a ceremony at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, Feb. 14.
Sgt. 1st Class Chad E. Lawson, a communications sergeant with Operational Detachment Alpha 3116 and deployed as part of Special Operations Task Force – South, was awarded the Silver Star for his heroics during combat operations Aug. 4, 2010, in southern Afghanistan.
“What you did, frankly, was extraordinarily heroic,” Petraeus said before pinning the medal on Lawson’s chest. “You’re team sergeant was down, others were down, and your instincts were to go and run through 500 meters of heavy machine-gun fire to the scene and rescue downed comrades.”
On that day, he and members of his team were caught in an ambush with approximately 45 insurgents attacking his unit. Lawson ran through a hail of enemy fire in order to rescue his downed team sergeant and organize forces for a medical evacuation.
“During his sprint, Sergeant Lawson was barely missed by [rocket-propelled grenade] and [heavy machine-gun] fire, with rounds chipping off the walls and ground all around him,” the narrative accompanying his award reads.
Lawson, a native of Cincinnati, called in a medical evacuation, and, “while still receiving heavy, direct and accurate deadly fire, for a second time he exposed himself” when he grabbed a fellow team member as well as Afghan Commandos on the mission, and led them in defense of a landing zone for the MEDEVAC helicopter.
Like his actions on that day, Lawson said his medal presentation was about his team.
“The nice thing about military honors is that rarely, if ever, is it solely your award,” Lawson said after receiving the Silver Star from Petraeus. “So I refuse to accept it on behalf of myself, but more for my team. Nothing anyone did out there was by themselves, on any operation, in particular that one. So for me to be recognized, by myself, is an honor for our team, our battalion and our group.”
Petraeus said Lawson exemplified what he called the “new greatest generation.”
“You did instinctively the right thing, which is the heroic thing,” Petraeus told Lawson. “It is really extraordinary to read in black and white what you did, and then to think about what that represented on that particular day, one in which you put it all on the line for your fellow members of the brotherhood of the close fight, and again, did something truly heroic.”
http://www.socom.mil/socomhome/newsp...ilverstar.aspx
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SouthernDZ is offline
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02-14-2011, 15:24
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#2
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Area Commander
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SouthernDZ
Like his actions on that day, Lawson said his medal presentation was about his team.
“The nice thing about military honors is that rarely, if ever, is it solely your award,” Lawson said after receiving the Silver Star from Petraeus. “So I refuse to accept it on behalf of myself, but more for my team. Nothing anyone did out there was by themselves, on any operation, in particular that one. So for me to be recognized, by myself, is an honor for our team, our battalion and our group.”
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That statement says it all. Congratulations SFC Lawson. You truly are an example of what it means to be a humble Warrior.
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Sohei is offline
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02-14-2011, 18:11
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#3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Sheepdog
That statement says it all. Congratulations SFC Lawson. You truly are an example of what it means to be a humble Warrior.
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Yup, nuthin like a good team.
Very honest and humble (as most of those warriors) are.
Good Job SFC Lawson.
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Out of all the places I've been, this is one of'em....
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glebo is offline
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02-14-2011, 15:25
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#4
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Quiet Professional (RIP)
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Congratulations Sgt 1st Class Lawson.......  You bring HONOR to the SF service.......
Big Teddy
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I believe that SF is a 'calling' - not too different from the calling missionaries I know received. I knew instantly that it was for me, and that I would do all I could to achieve it. Most others I know in SF experienced something similar. If, as you say, you HAVE searched and read, and you do not KNOW if this is the path for you --- it is not....
Zonie Diver
SF is a calling and it requires commitment and dedication that the uninitiated will never understand......
Jack Moroney
SFA M-2527, Chapter XXXVII
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greenberetTFS is offline
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02-14-2011, 16:46
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#5
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Congratulations SFC Lawson!!!
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"Berg Heil"
History teaches that when you become indifferent and lose the will to fight someone who has the will to fight will take over."
COLONEL BULL SIMONS
Intelligence failures are failures of command [just] as operations failures are command failures.”
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MtnGoat is offline
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02-14-2011, 17:35
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#6
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RIP Quiet Professional
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Does my heart good.
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"There you go, again." Ronald Reagan
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Dusty is offline
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02-14-2011, 18:13
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#7
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Gold Star Father
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Well Done, SFC Lawson! You have done yourself and OUR Spartan team proud!!! Thank you for your service, your sacrifice, your professionalism and your love of your teammates! I can't wait to see you soon to thank you in person!!!
With It or On It!!!
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Tatonka316 is offline
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02-14-2011, 19:36
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#8
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Quiet Professional
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Good job SFC Lawson
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There is only one tactical principal which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wounds, death and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time.
Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.
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Jgood is offline
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02-15-2011, 08:01
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#9
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Congratulations SFC Lawson.
Stay Safe..
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Go raibh tú leathuair ar Neamh sula mbeadh a fhios ag an diabhal go bhfuil tú marbh
"May you be a half hour in heaven before the devil knows you’re dead"
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JJ_BPK is offline
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02-15-2011, 18:18
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#10
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Area Commander
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Congratulations SFC Lawson, well done!
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My Heroes wear camouflage.
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Gypsy is offline
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02-15-2011, 21:08
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#11
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Chad is an exceptional member of a truly exceptional ODA. I had the honor of working with this team last fall, and they are all over it. Thanks for what you do, Chad, and I look forward to seeing you soon. Congratulations, brother.
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. . . This is another type of warfare; new in its intensity, ancient in its origin, warfare by guerrillas, subversives, insurgents, assassins, war by ambush instead of by combat, by infiltration instead of aggression, seeking victory by eroding and exhausting the enemy instead of engaging him.
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austinsf is offline
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02-16-2011, 03:56
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#12
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Great work, Chad. Way to represent one of the finest detachments in one of the most combat-proven battalions in the Regiment.
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Every man has three characters: that which he shows, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has.
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head is offline
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02-16-2011, 09:37
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#13
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Quiet Professional
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Well Done Brother!!!!!
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"Most of us here can attest that we never took the easy way. Easy just is............easy. Life is a work in progress, and most of the time its a struggle." ~ Me
"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956)
"A Government that is losing to an insurgency is not being outfought, it is being out governed." Bernard B. Fall
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LongWire is offline
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02-16-2011, 15:43
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#14
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Area Commander
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Good on ya SFC Lawson!
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Red Flag 1 is offline
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04-02-2011, 13:55
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#15
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Asset
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Georgia
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Just one word awesome and congratulations!!
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If you kill for pleasure, you are a sadist
If you kill for money, you are a mercenary
If you kill for both, you work for blackwater.
My brother's team "VICTORY MOBILE"
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