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After so many years, there is finally some very real hope that Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe will finally receive the Medal of Honor for his heroic sacrifice in Iraq 15 years ago. It is unfortunate this was tied up for so long in bureaucratic limbo.
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has given his full support that Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe deserves the medal. Congress must also waive the five-year time limit from the date of action to receiving the award (which should not be an issue at all). Then if that happens, it is up to President Trump to approve.
I sincerely believe if it gets to President Trump, he will wholeheartedly approve this, and that Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe will rightfully and finally be honored.
A years long push to award the military's highest valor medal to a soldier who entered a burning Bradley fighting vehicle multiple times to pull comrades to safety has just received a major shot in the arm.
In a letter to lawmakers this month, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he believes Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe deserves the Medal of Honor, and he'll work to approve it -- although there will be a few final hurdles to overcome before the process is complete.
“After giving the nomination careful consideration, I agree that SFC Cashe’s actions merit award of the Medal of Honor,” Esper wrote in the Aug. 24 letter.
He noted that the final authority to award the medal rests with the president and said his determination "in no way presumes what the decision of the president might be."
Nine years after the Iraq bomb attack, retired Sgt. Gary Mills has no doubt that Cashe deserves the Medal of Honor. Mills was inside the stricken Bradley fighting vehicle that day. He was on fire, his hands so badly burned that he couldn’t open the rear troop door to free himself and other soldiers trapped inside the flaming vehicle.
Someone opened the door from outside, Mills recalls. A powerful hand grabbed him and yanked him to safety. He later learned that the man who had rescued him was Cashe, who seconds later crawled into the vehicle to haul out the platoon’s critically burned medic while on fire himself.
“Sgt. Cashe saved my life,” Mills said. “With all the ammo inside that vehicle, and all those flames, we’d have all been dead in another minute or two.”
Four of the six soldiers rescued later died of their wounds at a hospital. An Afghan interpreter riding in the Bradley died during the bomb attack. Cashe refused to be loaded onto a medical evacuation helicopter until all the other wounded men had been flown.
A citation proposing the Medal of Honor for Cashe reads: “SFC Cashe’s selfless and gallant actions allowed the loved ones of these brave soldiers to spend precious time by their sides before they succumbed.”
Cashe’s sister, Kasinal Cashe White, spent three weeks at her brother’s bedside at a military hospital in Texas as doctors treated his extensive burns. She knew nothing of his actions during the bomb attack until a nurse asked her, “You know your brother’s a hero, don’t you?”
When Cashe was able to speak, White said, his first words were: “How are my boys?” — his soldiers, she said.
Then he began weeping, she said. He told her: “I couldn’t get to them fast enough.”
Cashe died Nov. 8, 2005.
“My little brother lived by the code that you never leave your soldiers behind,” White said. “That wasn’t just something from a movie. He lived it.”
What he did was far above and beyond the call of duty. He died from burns received when he entered the burning Bradley to rescue his men sacrificing his life for others.
Good. It is about time. The man voluntarily burned himself to death by going into a burning Brad several times to drag out his people. The epitome of selfless service, loyalty, and personal courage. That Brad was burning because it hit an IED. How anyone could think it wasn't as a result of enemy action is beyond me.
I've spent a long time in the Army. Every time I read about what this NCO did I have to chase away those onion cutting ninjas.
Senate lawmakers on Tuesday unanimously approved plans to award the nation’s highest military honor to Iraq War hero Alwyn Cashe. Now the decision is up to the president.
Cashe, an Army sergeant first class who died in November 2005 from injuries sustained trying to save his men from a burning Bradley Fighting Vehicle, was previously honored with a Silver Star for his actions.
But advocates have long criticized that decision, lamenting paperwork mistakes and bureaucratic regulations that prevented his honor from being upgraded over the last 14 years.
Fifteen years after 35-year-old Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe sacrificed his life to pull injured comrades out of a burning Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the U.S. Senate has eliminated the final obstacle standing in the way of his receiving the Medal of Honor.
On Tuesday night, the Senate passed by unanimous consent HR 8276, a bill that waives a five-year time limit on awarding the military's highest valor medal. The U.S. House passed the bill Sept. 23; the Senate process was delayed amid confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, who was ultimately confirmed Oct. 26.
The effort to clear the way for Cashe to receive the Medal of Honor was led by House lawmakers Stephy Murphy, D-Fla; Michael Waltz, R-Fla; and Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas. They sprang into action after then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in an August letter that he believed Cashe deserved the medal.
President Donald Trump late Friday signed legislation to allow Iraq War hero Alwyn Cashe to be awarded the Medal of Honor, a move that nearly ends Cashe’s family and supporters 15-year quest to honor him with the nation’s highest military award.
The legislation waives the normal five-year time limit for awarding the medal for Cashe, an Army sergeant first class who died in November 2005 after trying to save his men from a burning Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
Defense Department officials will now have to officially nominate Cashe for the award, a formality that officials have already indicated they support.
Cashe’s award is long overdue, according to many observers. He will be the first Black service member to receive the Medal of Honor for events during the Global War on Terrorism.
Cashe’s efforts to rescue his soldiers resulted in second and third degree burns over nearly 75 percent of his body, ultimately leading to his death. Witnesses said that even as the heat burned his uniform and body armor off of him, Cashe ignored the pain to continue pulling his men out of the fire.
Originally, his command rapidly moved to award him the Silver Star.
But after learning the full extent of Cashe’s actions, his battalion commander, now-Lt. Gen. Gary Brito, soon launched a campaign to upgrade the award. It took more than a decade for Cashe’s supporters to win over Army officials and lawmakers in order to clear administrative barriers for the award.
In November 2020, Congress removed the final hurdle when it passed legislation authorizing Cashe to receive the nation’s highest award for valor, but the Trump administration did not award the medal.
That overused term “Hero” applies here. The man is the definition of hero. Where did he get the resolve to repeatedly run back into hell? Salute soldier.
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