1 post tagged “luttrell”

 

 

 

TEXAS VFF HEROES TOUR TIMELINE

March 19: San Antonio, TX

0900: Alamo visit and participation in "Alamo Blood Drive"

1100: Lunch at Menger Hotel

1300: Personal visits to wounded warriors at Brook Army Medical Center

1400: Wreath laying ceremony at National Veteran's Cemetery Fort Sam Houston

1500: Reception at the US Army Medical Department Museum

1600: Wreath laying ceremony at the Combat Medics Memorial

1700: Public Rally outside the museum

March 20: Austin, TX

0900: Public Rally on the State Capital steps

1100: Wreath laying ceremony at T-Patcher Memorial

1500: Visit to State Veteran's cemetery Killeen, Tx

1700: Public Rally at Fort Hood

 

National Heroes

 

David Bellavia

author of the much acclaimed war memoir House to House: An Epic Memoir of War, about door-to-door close combat in Iraq, Bellavia is a former army staff sergeant who served in the First Infantry Division (Task Force 2-2) for six years.

He is the recipient of the both Silver and Bronze Stars for valor, and the Conspicuous Service Cross, New York State's highest award for combat valor. He has also been nominated for both the Distinguished Service Cross and the Medal of Honor for his actions in a fierce urban hand-to-hand fight in the battle of Fallujah, in November 2004.

As a result of their involvement in this operation, Bellavia and members of his unit became the subjects of the Time magazine cover story, “Into the Hot Zone,” and were awarded the prestigious Presidential Unit Citation.

Bellavia returned to Iraq in June 2006 as an embedded reporter with the Iraqi Army. His reports appeared in The Weekly Standard.

A frequent military analyst on both the FOX News and CNN networks, Bellavia was invited to attend the President's State of the Union address as an honored guest in 2006. He also has been inducted into the New York Veterans Hall of Fame.

Originally from Buffalo, NY, Bellavia currently resides in western New York with his wife and two sons. There he has founded a local Veteran's Coordination Center that focuses on the early treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and other veteran's-related issues and outreach programs. Bellavia is also a co-founder of the non-partisan, non-profit Vets for Freedom organization.

 

 

 

Marcus Luttrell

New York Times best-selling author Marcus Luttrell is a former U.S. Navy SEAL and Petty Officer First Class who was awarded a Purple Heart, and a Navy Cross for combat heroism on the front lines in Afghanistan. The sole survivor of a mission in which four Navy SEALs were sent into a Taliban stronghold on the Afghan-Pakistan border to capture a key Taliban leader, Luttrell was badly injured yet managed to escape capture and later author the best-seller, Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10. A film based on the book is currently being considered.

Born into a Huntsville, TX-ranching family in 1975, the 6-foot-five-inch Luttrell began training for the military at a young age and ended up attending Sam Houston University. He graduated and in March 1999 joined the U.S. Navy. He completed Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL training and was sent to Baghdad, Iraq.

After two years in Iraq, Luttrell was deployed to Afghanistan in 2005. On June 28 of that year, he and three colleagues of SEAL Team 10 were sent on Operation Redwing, a mission to capture Ahmad Shah, a Taliban leader believed to be a close ally of Osama Bin Laden. Luttrell was the team’s sole survivor after a fierce firefight against a force of some 150 Taliban fighters, 100 of whom were killed by the four SEALs.

After his rescue and recovery, Luttrell was once again deployed to Iraq. He returned to the U.S. in 2007 and has been telling his story far and wide through his book and in interviews with The Washington Post, on the Today Show, on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and other national outlets.

Luttrell has an identical twin, Morgan, who is also a Navy SEAL and is still active. They each bear tattoos of half of a Navy SEAL trident on their chests—when they stand next to one another they form the full trident.

 

 

 

Marco Martinez

In May 2004, Corporal Marco Martinez became the first Hispanic American since the Vietnam War to be awarded the Navy Cross, the second-highest honor awarded a U.S. Marine. He was recognized for his heroic actions in Iraq a year earlier when—after his squad leader was severely injured—he led his squad bravely into the heart of the enemy stronghold, through heavy fire, to help evacuate another wounded Marine.

Oblivious to his own safety—armed only with a grenade and a rifle—Martinez then single-handedly took out a building and the enemy forces within it because it posed a threat to his squad.

His valor stands in stark contrast to his behavior just three years earlier, when Martinez was a gun-toting, joy-riding gang member in New Mexico. One of four children, Martinez grew up in Albuquerque, NM. He was always drawn to adventure, but it took a Marine recruiter to show him that a gang-life was not the type of adventure he ultimately sought. Martinez enlisted in the Marines his senior year of high school in Las Cruces, NM, and was sent to boot camp immediately upon graduation in 2000.

Martinez recounts the details of his transformation from gangster to Marine hero in his 2007 memoir Hard Corps. Since leaving the military in 2004, he has also been published in USA Today and on www.townhall.com. He is currently pursuing a degree in business management at Saddleback Community College in Mission Viejo, CA (with hopes of transferring to San Diego State University,) and is concurrently employed full-time in the nuclear security sector.

In his spare time, Martinez, speaks to teenagers about the danger of gangs and doing poorly in school. Martinez is also a member of the Legion of Valor.

 

 

 

LTC Steven "Steve" D. Russell (Ret) 

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russell may be best known for leading the battalion that was a central player in the hunt and capture of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, but he has a much broader, more illustrious record of service. Before retiring in the fall of 2006, He served 21 years in the U.S. Army’s Airborne, Light and Mechanized units, crossing the globe on assignments from the Arctic, to the Pacific, to Europe, to the Middle East and back.

His seven years overseas operationally in Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq, earned him numerous awards and decorations including the Legion of Merit; Bronze Star Medal with Valor Device and Oak Leaf Cluster; the Combat Infantryman’s Badge; and the US Army Airborne and Ranger qualifications. His unit was awarded the Valorous Unit Award (Silver Star level of performance by a unit) for its role in the hunt and capture of Saddam.

Born in Del City, OK, 44-year-old Russell earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in public speaking from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, AR, in 1985. That same year he received his commission as an Infantry Lieutenant. Russell served in the following years as an airborne rifle and mortar platoon leader, a Bradley Company Commander, and a tactics instructor at the US Army Infantry School. In 1998, he graduated from the Command and Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, where he also earned a masters degree in history.

He was with the first forces deployed to Kosovo in June 1999 with the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry as the operations officer, responsible for all combat operations and planning which are critical to the success of any mission. Upon return from Kosovo, Russell served as the battalion’s executive officer. In February 2001, Russell was hand-picked to become aide-de-camp to the general in command of all ground forces in the United States, the Forces Command commander.

Later that year, Russell was deployed to Kuwait and became responsible for operational combat planning in the Afghan area of operations. He continued to work in the Afghan arena, moving to Kabul and was the lead planner responsible for the United States plan to raise and train the Afghan National Army. During this time he was also a delegate representing the United States at a United Nations Afghan Security Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. Russell returned from Operation Enduring Freedom in August, 2002.

In May 2003, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Russell deployed to Iraq to assume command of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry “Regulars” and was at the heart of the battle in Tikrit, Iraq, until the spring of 2004. His battalion received regular coverage by the media, and after Hussein’s capture was profiled in two documentaries “Ace in the Hole” (Discovery Channel) and “Saddam on the Run” (BBC Panorama.)

Russell returned to the states still in command the 1st Battalion 22nd Infantry until June, 2005, preparing them for their second deployment that fall. He was then selected to become the US Army Infantry School’s Chief of Tactics at Ft. Benning, Georgia. He turned down promotion to full colonel and a Queens University War College Fellowship in Kingston, Canada to retire in September 2006 and be with his wife and 5 children. He has since founded Vets for Victory, an organization that educates the public about the war on terror, and travels across the country putting a soldier’s voice to the national debate on the war. He is a sought-after speaker, writer and media analyst, and been a major voice in combating defeatist rhetoric at home.

 

Jeremiah Workman

Despite being pierced by shrapnel from an exploding grenade, Marine Sgt. Jeremiah Workman continued rushing forward into enemy fire, leading three assaults to extricate Marines trapped in a besieged building. This courageous act took place while Workman was serving as a Marine squad leader in Fallujah, Iraq, during clearing operations on Dec. 23, 2004. It earned him a Navy Cross Medal—an honor second only to the Medal of Honor—for “extraordinary heroism.”

The 24-year-old Ohio native began his military career upon graduating from North Union High School in Richwood, OH, in 2001. Workman began basic training at Parris Island Recruit Depot, SC, in August 2001. After receiving infantry training at Camp Lejeune, NC, he was sent to Marine Corps Security Forces School in Virginia, and later stationed at the Naval Submarine Base in King’s Bay, GA. In less than two years, Workman was promoted to corporal.

In 2003, Workman received specialized training at the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape (SERE) School at the Mountain Warfare Training Center, in Bridgeport, CA. After receiving SERE training, Workman reported to 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines to ready for deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In September 2004, Workman and the rest of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines deployed to Iraq to take part in what would become known as one of the fiercest battles in America’s history – Operation Phantom Fury. For his heroic acts on the battlefield, Workman received—in addition to the Navy Cross—the Purple Heart and the Combat Action Ribbon. He has also received the Navy Marine Corps Achievement Medal

Workman says that he doesn’t see himself as being any different from any other Marine. And that’s one of the reasons that he has joined the National Heroes Tour—to thank all of the unsung heroes, especially those he left behind in the desert sands.

In February 2005, Workman was promoted to sergeant, and two months later, returned to the United States. In the fall of that year, Workman enrolled in Drill Instructor School at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island. Upon completing his training, he attended Marine Combat Instructor Water Survival School. In 2006, he put the skills learned at both to use as a drill instructor with the Delta Company, 1st Recruit Training Battalion. Later that year he attended Army airborne school at Fort Benning, GA.

He, his wife Jessica, and son Devon reside in Quantico, VA. In his spare time, Workman enjoys spending time with his family and volunteering at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico. He is also working toward a degree in criminal justice.