American Valor Quarterly Issue 10 - Summer 2013 | Page 14

Paul Ray Smith Award
For distinguished service in the United States military during Operation Iraqi Freedom

Paul Ray Smith was born in Texas in 1969. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1989 and was deployed with Bravo Company
of the 3rd Infantry Division to Kosovo in 2001, rising to the rank of sergeant first class the spring of 2002. In January of 2003,
he was deployed to Kuwait in preparation for what would become Operation Iraqi Freedom. On April 4, 2003, two weeks after the
invasion, Smith’s unit found itself engaged in heavy combat against superior numbers of enemy forces near Baghdad International
Airport. In the heat of the battle, Smith ran under heavy fire to a nearby mounted machine gun. While maintaining this exposed
position, he killed nearly 50 enemy fighters before he was mortally wounded. His selfless actions saved the lives of more than 100
soldiers and repelled the enemy attack. For his valor, he posthumously was awarded the Medal of Honor—the first American service
member to receive the military’s highest honor for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
Previous Recipients: 2011 - COL Gregory Gadson 2010 - Sgt. Marco Martinez 2009 - SSG David Bellavia
2008 - CPT W. Bryan Jackson 2007 - SSgt. Jeremiah Workman 2006 - Sgt. Timothy Connors

Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russell
United States Army (ret)
On December 14,2003 U.S. Ambassador Paul Bremer, Administrator of the Coalition
Provisional Authority in Iraq, began a press briefing with the words “We got him!”
announcing to the world the capture of toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Saddam
was pulled from a spider hole in a small, mud-walled compound in the village of Al
Dawr near Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit.
The capture was due in considerable part to the efforts of Army Lt. Co ۙ[