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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/0..._valor_051309/

3 Carson soldiers to receive high honors

By Dan Elliott - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday May 13, 2009 17:39:41 EDT

FORT CARSON, Colo. — Staff Sgt. Jarion Halbisen-Gibbs felt something like “a white-hot shot of lightning” pierce his gut when an Iraqi insurgent’s bullet tore through his small intestine and lodged in his buttock.

He and other Green Berets kept fighting, and when the September 2007 raid was over, 12 suspected Iraqi insurgents were dead — including the target of the raid, a man described by the Army as a high-value terrorist who was masterminding extortion and kidnappings.

On Thursday, the Army will give the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest medal for valor a soldier can get, to Halbisen-Gibbs. Two of his fellow soldiers from the 10th Special Forces Group, Capt. Matthew A. Chaney and Sgt. 1st Class Michael D. Lindsay, will get the Silver Star, which ranks just below the Distinguished Service Cross.

In a dimly lighted, wood-trimmed regimental mess hall at Fort Carson this week, they recounted the events of Sept. 10, 2007, when they were among about 20 U.S. and Iraqi troops on a 2 a.m. raid on a rural compound in Samarra, Iraq.

With Halbisen-Gibbs in the lead, the three men stormed one of the buildings, detonating a grenade and firing their weapons. Inside, Chaney was shot in the pelvis and Lindsay in the throat, and the force of an enemy grenade sent those two flying back out through the doorway. The blast of that grenade threw Halbisen-Gibbs into a corner inside the building.

“I felt an amazing blow to my midsection that took me off my feet,” Lindsay said. He was vomiting and hyperventilating, too weak to get up or even hold his rifle, so he rolled over, pulled out his handgun and began firing toward the insurgents.

“When I was a kid, and I played war, I was always that kid that cheated and never died when somebody else shot me,” he said with a laugh. “Dying is something I’ve accepted a long time ago, but dying helpless on the ground is something I’m not willing to accept.”

Chaney temporarily lost feeling in his legs but took cover behind an insurgent’s body. He kept firing while trying to reach other team members on his radio, which he later learned had been shot and wasn’t working.

“So only the yelling was getting disseminated,” he said. “We were yelling to each other and trying to find out what’s going on.”

Shrapnel from the insurgents’ grenade had mangled the thumb on Halbisen-Gibbs’ firing hand. Dazed and unable to see through the smoke and dust, he went outside to look for Chaney and Lindsay. He began running to Lindsay when he was shot in the abdomen.

“I was so jacked up on adrenaline, I didn’t really feel it that much,” Halbisen-Gibbs said. “Honestly, my thumb hurt worse than anything else at the time.”

He shot and killed the insurgent who injured him, then rallied the Iraqi government troops to press on with the attack.

“It wasn’t until about 15 minutes later when shock really set in that I really, really started hurting,” he said.

With other soldiers wrapping up the attack and attending to Chaney and Lindsay, Halbisen-Gibbs told them, “ ‘Hey, I got shot, and I’m going to go take a knee now.’ At that point I was pretty much done.”

None of the U.S. or Iraqi government troops were killed.

Only 18 other Army personnel have won the Distinguished Service Cross in the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 547 have won the Silver Star, according to Doug Sterner, a military historian in Pueblo, Colo. The Army doesn’t track the numbers.

The Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest award for military valor. The Army’s Distinguished Service Cross, and the equivalent service awards in the Navy and Air Force, are the second-highest valor award.

In a written account of the action, the Army said Chaney, Lindsay and Halbisen-Gibbs “acted with the utmost of bravery and valor to remove a heavily armed and entrenched enemy stronghold.”

Chaney said their training allowed them to stay focused and think clearly despite the chaos and danger.

“The training allows you to think, even when your heart’s racing, and that threat is there. You actually can make sound decisions, and the ones that are required to be reflexive, your training does kick in,” he said.

Lindsay said the training helps them manage stress and fear.

“You’re never going to get rid of the fear. It’s always there,” he said. “I don’t want to go out on a mission with a guy that’s not scared, because that dude’s a maniac.”

Lindsay, 30, of Gates County, N.C., and Halbisen-Gibbs, 27, of Peterboro, N.H., each had at least two operations and both had sections of their intestines removed. Chaney, 31, of Washington, Ill., had at least three operations.

All are still on active duty, and Halbisen-Gibbs has been promoted to sergeant first class. Chaney and Lindsay have served another tour in Iraq. Halbisen-Gibbs is in training and ready for another deployment.

All three are married. Halbisen-Gibbs and Chaney each has a son. Lindsay’s wife is expecting twins in June.