Wednesday's Hero

Sgt. 1st Class Brandon McGuire


The early morning April sky dawned clear over Forward Operating Base Iskandaryia, Iraq. Sgt. 1st Class Brandon McGuire, a platoon sergeant with 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment, whose home base was Fort Richardson, Alaska, and his spotter settled in for their third day of looking for insurgents.

"We were observing a stretch of road that had recently been cleared of IEDs (improvised explosive devices)," said McGuire, now first sergeant of Fort Polk's Alpha Troop, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 509th Infantry Regiment.

"The area had also seen a lot of mortar activity. We had several Soldiers killed and severely wounded along that stretch of road by IEDs and mortars."

As the two Soldiers gazed across the expanse between their hiding place - an abandoned shed - and their target area, they noticed a man in local garb sauntering up and down through a series of canals. When he dug into a canal bank and uncovered a mortar tube, McGuire said he knew this was a target.

You can read the rest of Sgt. 1st Class Brandon McGuire's story here.

Photo Courtesy Army.mil

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

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