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The soldiers set to receive the award include Master Sgt. Earl Plumlee, a member of the Army’s elite Special Forces who fended off an attack by Taliban suicide bombers in Afghanistan in 2013; Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Celiz, a member of the Army Ranger’s who died in combat in Afghanistan in 2018; and Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe, who suffered mortal injuries while famously saving several soldiers from a burning vehicle in Iraq in 2005, Fox News has confirmed.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
Cashe, who has long garnered support to receive the award, will become the first black service member to be awarded the nation’s highest military honor for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan.
STEELERS’ ALEJANDRO VILLANUEVA REVEALS WHY HE HONORS ARMY SGT. 1ST CLASS ALWYN CASHE ON HELMET
He was on his second deployment to Iraq in October 2005 when his unit was ambushed, causing their vehicle to roll over a compression plate that triggered an improvised explosive device that caused the vehicle to burst into flames.
Cashe began pulling his comrades from the vehicle even as his fuel soaked uniform caught on fire, returning again and again as the flames spread to pull wounded soldiers from the wreckage.
(Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe. (U.S. Army))
“Sgt. Cashe saved my life,” said Sgt. Gary Mills, who was with Cashe that day, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “With all the ammo inside that vehicle, and all those flames, we’d have all been dead in another minute or two.”
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He was flown to a field hospital in Iraq and then to Germany and San Antonio, Texas, but the wounds were too severe.
Medal of Honor. (Credit: iStock)
“I did not realize it at the time, but he is the closest thing to a hero that I likely will ever meet,” Air Force Maj. Mark Rasnake, the doctor who treated Cashe before he succumbed to his wounds wrote in a 2005 letter. “This is a place where the word ‘hero’ is tossed around day in and day out, so much so that you sometimes lose sight of its true meaning.”
