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Sergeant First Class Paul Smith and Why He is a Hero Some have asked why hakes a hero and why does the US Military only award a Soldier the Medal of Honor after he or she has made the greatest sacrifice. Sergeant first class Smith knowingly put himself into danger to save his Soldiers. A good leader like him would not tell his Soldier to do anything he would not do himself. As a leader in the U. S. Army, leaders should always put your Soldiers well-being before your own. Many of Sergeant First Class Smith’s actions would make others say he was a hero, and not because he had earned the highest medal for valor, the U.
S. Military has. He was a good man. Sergeant first class would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. According to Vic Krepacki “SFC Paul Ray Smith was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor April 4, 2003. Smith was killed while saving numerous American Soldiers’ lives during Operation Iraqi Freedom. RDECOM commemorated Smith’s honor and valor by naming the STTC facility after him. ” The reason Sergeant First Class Smith is a hero because; whether he is in Iraq or back in the U. S. A. e puts his Soldiers before himself. He was a Combat Engineer and a Sapper. Sappers are some of the most elite of combat engineers. They go through an additional four weeks of intensive training to earn the right to be called Sappers. Some of the training they have to go through to earn the name sapper is; extensive small group leaders training, advanced demolitions training and much more. Many Soldiers are proud to have known him and worked for him to include myself. He was a great example of what a US Army leader should be.
My research uncovered an article written by an anonymous author this is one quote from the article “Three military personnel who are recipients of the Medal of Honor due to their courage to defend freedom, and which consequently sacrificed their lives in selfless acts of heroism, are profiled. They are SFC Paul R. Smith, MSgt Gary I. Gordon, and SFC Randall D. Shughart. ” During the initial invasion of Iraq SFC Smith would put himself in danger to help fellow Soldiers his unit was moving north toward Bagdad international airport when they came under heavy enemy fire from all directions.
He was the first to return fire and organize a counter attack against the enemy force, during the engagement he repeatedly put himself in the direct line of fire from the enemy to help evacuate his wounded Soldiers. Sergeant first class Smith was ordered to take his unit to the Bagdad international airport and set up an enemy prisoner of war holding area, while setting up the prisoner holding area his unit was attacked by an overwhelming enemy force. Sergeant first class Smith put himself in danger by moving towards the enemy to occupy an armored personnel carrier with a M2 . 0 Caliber machine gun mounted on top, after seeing him moving to the vehicle one of his Soldiers joined him and helped his reload the machine gun when he ran out of ammunition. When the fire fight was over, his unit noticed that Sergeant first class Smith had been mortally wounded, his Soldiers completed a battle damage assessment and found that Sergeant first class Smith had killed at least 100 enemy Soldiers and saved the lives of his unit members. In conclusion, SFC Smith showed extraordinary valor and heroism on 4 April 2003 by putting the mission and his men’s safety and well-being before himself.
Christian DeLuc said Smith braved hostile enemy fire in order to engage the attacking force and evacuate wounded Soldiers. We learned that he was a good Soldier, leader and friend. There is no right, wrong way to determine what makes a person a hero, or what makes a person act in a heroic manner. Some people would say a person was born to be a hero while others would say that you do what needs to be done at the time without thinking, I am going to be a hero today. Student teacher memo 1. What was your purpose? What effect were you trying to achieve?
The purpose of this paper was to introduce the person I thought was a hero and why. 2. What was interesting about the process you went through in writing this paper, and what did you learn from it? What I found to be interesting is, I am glad we had to do this assignment so I could introduce you to someone I called a friend. I learned that it is not easy to write in the third person for me. 3. What was the most difficult aspect about this paper, and what did you learn from the attempt? The most difficult thing about this paper was trying to stay within 750 words. It made me learn how to get to the point ith fewer words. 4. What do you see as the strengths of the paper, and what would you try to do if you were to revise it some more? I think the strength of this paper is the character, he was an amazing Soldier. I would try to find a shorter MOH citation. 5. What is not a part of your paper that you think might help a reader understand or appreciate it more? What did you not put in? I would put more about the history of the Medal of Honor. 6. What kind of grammar or formatting feedback would you like from your instructor? E-mail the original paper back with the corrections in red like in a normal class room. . When using the APUS Online Library article databases, did you evaluate the credibility of the sources you chose? No I do not know how. Work cited Vic Krepacki. “Medal of Honor Recipient SFC Paul Ray Smith Commemorated. ” Army AL & T 1 Sep. 2005: ProQuest Military Collection, ProQuest. Web. 23 Aug. 2009. “Medal of Honor Winners Remembered. ” Army 1 Jul 2005: Research Library, ProQuest. Web. 23 Aug. 2009. Christian DeLuca. “Fallen Hero Honored by Engineer Regiment and Soldier-Artist. ” Engineer 1 Apr. 2007: Research Library, ProQuest. Web. 23 Aug. 2009.