Editor’s Note: This is the latest in an ongoing series that tells the stories of men and women in the armed forces who have been awarded for acts of bravery while serving their country.
The door to his armored vehicle was destroyed.
His radio operator lay critically wounded.
Injuries incapacitated the gunner. The driver was unconscious.
Shrapnel had pierced 1st Lt.
Michael McCarty himself, but he knew he had to act fast.
When he spotted an enemy machine-gun crew preparing to fire on the wounded vehicle, McCarty, a farmer from Bald Knob, leaped from the stillmoving Humvee and closed in to stop the danger.
One by one he picked off the machine-gun crew over the next few minutes, moving from cover to cover as team members supported him with fire from behind.
“I didn’t have much of a choice,” McCarty said. “Something had to be done about that machine gun.”
Once the machine gun wassilenced, McCarty’s soldiers moved house to house in the dense Baghdad neighborhood.
“We tried to box them in, basically,” he said. “There was very little room - narrow streets,people with cars on the side. We were trying to find the enemy and engage them.”
McCarty was awarded the Silver Star for his actions on Nov. 20, 2004. Many platoon members also received honors.
“They were all heroes in my book,” he said. “I’m just lucky I had the soldiers I had.
“There were 26 heroes that day, because if any one of us hadn’t done our job, then there would have been a lot more casualties than there were.”
The Americans - part of Company C, Third Battalion, 39th Brigade Combat Team, attached under command of the First Cavalry, Fort Hood, Texas - faced up to 100 combatants on that day during their mission to protect a Baghdad police station.
McCarty’s vehicle was blasted when the platoon was returning to the police station. Earlier in the day, the Arkansas guardsmen lost a vehicle to enemy gunfire in the neighborhood. After depleting most of its ammunition, the platoon returned to its base to treat two casualties, repair and restock.
Upon their return, the Arkansans battled enemy fighters for an hour and a half, McCarty recalled, but “it seemed like a couple of days.”
Most Baghdad houses have flat roofs, offering residents a cooling respite from summer heat. But the roofs also give insurgents a high vantage point to direct fire on U.S. soldiers.
And with most of their battalion fi ghting elsewhere, “there weren’t many people available to help us,” hesaid. Eventually an Apache gunship came to their aid and ended the battle.
McCarty’s Silver Star commendation cited the defeat of a larger force - and much more - by the then-24-year-old oft cer. “His aggressive leadership, indomitable spirit, and physical courage saved the lives of his soldiers and prevented enemy forces from continuing to mass on the Zone 18 IP Station. Throughout the fight, he led from the front without regard for his own personal safety.”
It went on to say that he represents “the epitome of the American combat leader and United States Army Infantry oft cer.”
McCarty’s twin brother, Patrick, was a sniper team leader, and the two served side by side in Iraq until the brother’s unit returned home before the attack in which McCarty earned his medal.
Patrick McCarty “washonored three times for valor, so I had pretty goodsized shoes to fi ll,” Michael said.
While grateful for the military accolades, McCarty cherishes an action by Patrick even more.
“He has a 2-year-old boy,” he said. “They named him after me. That’s the biggest honor I ever had.” LEWIS DELAVAN WRITES FOR THE ARKANSAS NEWS BUREAU IN LITTLE ROCK.
News, Pages 1 on 11/25/2009
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