Valor in Anbar: An Excerpt From Veterans Chronicles

Veterans Chronicles, the American Veterans Center’s weekly radio series, features the stories of America’s greatest military heroes, in their own words. The program is hosted by Gene Pell, former NBC Pentagon Correspondent and Moscow Bureau Chief, as well as Director for Voice of America and President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Each week, Gene talks to distinguished service members from World War II all the way through Operation Iraqi Freedom, allowing them to share their insights on the great and tragic moments in American military history. Veterans Chronicles airs nationwide on the Radio America network, downloaded via podcast, and heard online at www.americanveteranscenter.org.

In this issue of American Valor Quarterly, we feature the story of U.S. Army Captain Walter Bryan Jackson, recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross – second only to the Medal of Honor – for valor in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Captain Jackson graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2005. On September 26, 2006 as a young second lieutenant, Jackson and his fellow Soldiers of Company A, Task Force 1-36 came under attack from insurgents in the al-Anbar province of Iraq – what was then the deadliest region of the country. In the ensuing action, two of Jackson’s fellow Soldiers were seriously wounded. Instinctively, Jackson immediately went to provide aid before being shot himself. Despite his wounds, he continued to alternate between fighting off the enemy and tending to his fellow Soldier. It was not until the others were treated and evacuated that Jackson allowed himself to receive aid.

Captain Jackson would spend a year recovering from his wounds in Walter Reed Army Medical Center before returning to duty overseas in Korea. In this issue, we are proud to share his story of valor.

Captain Walter Bryan Jackson: At the time we were responding to a mortar attack against one of our combat outposts, and I was with my company commander, Captain Eric Stainbrook, as his support officer. We were rounding up a couple of detainees who we thought were responsible for attacking that base, and as we were about to pull away from the house where we found them, one of our Humvees became stuck in the mud. So we dismounted from the vehicles and were pulling security while other Soldiers attempted to free the Humvee.

Within short order we came under attack, and my commander and first sergeant were both injured from machine gun fire. My first reaction was to take cover. From there, everything happened very quickly and it is kind of hazy, so a lot of what I remember has been told to me second-hand from other people. I do remember moving out across the road and assisting First Sergeant David Sapp, one of the two Soldiers who was injured. About a minute later, I was hit by the machine gun fire as well.

I had been returning fire toward the position where I thought the insurgents were shooting from when I was hit. I slouched over and lost consciousness, from what I have been told. When I came to, I began returning fire again. However, I was unable to reload the magazine because of the loss of blood and I guess the shock of the injury, so I went back to providing first aid to First Sergeant Sapp. I looked over and saw Sergeant First Class Mark Newlin, one of the other Soldiers who had been towing the Humvee out of the mud; he was directing the gunners inside the Bradley fighting vehicles and ordering the Soldiers from inside the vehicles to come over to assist me and evacuate the commander and the first sergeant due to the severity of their wounds.

They moved over and picked up the commander, who had an injury to his left leg – the femoral artery had been hit, so he was bleeding profusely. As they loaded him in the vehicle, Lieutenant Diem Vo, a platoon leader on the ground, noticed his commander’s weapon still out in the open, so he ran over to retrieve it and was hit in the arm by machine gun fire. He was able to move and was ambulatory, so he got back in the vehicle. Sergeant First Class Newlin came back a second time under fire to assist me in picking up First Sergeant Sapp.

At that point, nobody knew that I was injured. I knew I was hurt, but I also knew I still had to help evacuate First Sergeant Sapp. So I stood up and helped carry him back to the Bradley vehicle, which was about thirty feet away.

Gene Pell: But you were still under fire?

Captain Jackson: Exactly. The entire time we were under fire from two different machine gun positions. We did not know where they were at, but returned fire in their general direction. So we picked up First Sergeant Sapp – there were four of us – myself, Sergeant Newlon, our medic, and another Soldier. We started moving him and, I don’t recall this, but I am told that I was hit a third time from enemy fire as we made our way toward the Humvee. But we kept pushing on and got in the back of the vehicle. They laid First Sergeant Sapp down, and I grabbed his hand to comfort him.

The medic looked me over and noticed that I was injured, but I told him to not worry about it and to help to stabilize First Sergeant Sapp. Once we were all loaded in, we pushed out to the field hospital, which took about five minutes or so. They offloaded us and laid us all down on the beds, and the doctor started categorizing us based on the priority of our injuries.