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Paul Ray Smith - Medal of Honor winner

Thread ID: 17647 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2005-04-05

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albion [OP]

2005-04-05 01:35 | User Profile

[COLOR=DarkRed][size=4]Bush awards Medal of Honor for Iraq duty[/size][/COLOR] [B]Sgt. Paul Smith died defending dozens of comrades in Baghdad[/B] [IMG]http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/050404/050404_smith_hmed_6a.h2.jpg[/IMG] [FONT=Courier New][SIZE=2]Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith is seen in this undated handout photo provided by the U.S. Army[/SIZE].[/FONT] WASHINGTON - Outnumbered and exposed, Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith stayed at his gun, beating back an advancing Iraqi force until a bullet took his life.

Smith is credited with protecting the lives of scores of lightly armed American soldiers who were beyond his position in the battle, on April 4, 2003, near the gates of Baghdad International Airport.

On Monday, exactly two years after Smith’s death, President Bush awarded him the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest honor for valor.

“We are here to pay tribute to a soldier whose service illustrates the highest ideals of leadership and love of our country,” Bush said in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. Bush said Smith “gave his life for these ideals in a deadly battle outside Baghdad. It is my great privilege to recognize his great sacrifice by awarding Sgt. Smith the Medal of Honor.”

Smith’s widow, Birgit, decided that the couple’s 11-year-old son, David, would accept the medal on his father’s behalf.

“It was a very easy decision for me because, after all, he’s the man of the house now,” she said Monday. She said she often hears from the men her husband saved, as well as their families. “They’re so grateful for what Paul did that day,” she said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

[url]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7379706/[/url]