Leroy
Arthur Petry joined our army two years before
9/11. He became a Ranger and was
assigned to the Ranger Regiment. He had
done two deployments to Iraq and was on his sixth deployment to Afghanistan.
He
was supposed to be the senior NCO on the raid.
His guys were to capture a high-value Taliban. Right after they assaulted the buildings he
would take a position inside one and talk on his radio. He wasn’t supposed to be shooting.
One
of the teams had difficulty clearing their building so he had another Ranger
join him and they moved toward the trouble.
Things went bad fast.
When
the two of them entered the courtyard and lost cover they were ambushed. Both were shot, Petry
through both legs. He reported their
injuries and the team leader of the building assault team came out to evaluate
and assist when a hand grenade landed nearby.
All
three were now injured. Two more Rangers
joined them. A second hand grenade
landed right in their midst. Petry picked it up and attempted to throw it back when is
detonated, “catastrophically amputating” his right arm.
As
he used his left arm to apply a tourniquet to the remaining part of his right
arm, the four Rangers whose lives he had just saved were engaging the
enemy. One of them would die in the
exchange, but ultimately the Rangers prevailed.
The
Commander-in-Chief announced on June 1 that Petry
would receive the Congressional Medal of Honor on July 12. He will be the eighth to receive that award
since 9/11 but only the second to receive it not posthumously.
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