{"id":795,"date":"2005-05-06T00:01:01","date_gmt":"2005-05-06T05:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=795"},"modified":"2005-05-06T00:01:37","modified_gmt":"2005-05-06T05:01:37","slug":"marine-gets-silver-star-for-bravery-at-fallujah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=795","title":{"rendered":"Marine Gets Silver Star for Bravery at Fallujah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ask a hero if he’s a hero and he’ll tell you no. Don’t bother asking this Marine<\/a> — he is most definitely a hero.<\/p>\n

Outnumbered, pinned down and under attack from three directions, the Marines of Echo Company were in danger of being overrun by Iraqi insurgents hurling grenades and firing rockets and AK-47s.<\/p>\n

Lance Cpl. Thomas Adametz, 21, a native of the Philippines, was determined that the Marines would not be defeated in the April 26, 2004, battle.<\/p>\n

He dashed in front of the bullet-riddled building where the Marines were under heavy fire, grabbed a machine gun and began firing at the enemy.<\/p>\n

With Adametz’s covering fire, the Marines regrouped and the insurgents were repelled.<\/p>\n

“I looked out there and saw this crazy maniac firing away so all the Marines could come back alive,” said Lance Cpl. Carlos Gomez-Perez, who was severely wounded in the attack.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, in a ceremony in which he was praised as a “great warrior,”Adametz was awarded the Silver Star, the United States’ third-highest award for combat bravery.<\/p>\n

Dozens of Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Regiment, 1st Marine Division have received commendations in the Fallujah campaign. But only Adametz received the Silver Star.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our country is truly fortunate to have such sons. I’ll leave this deserved honor with Adametz’s own words.<\/p>\n

At Wednesday’s ceremony, Adametz seemed slightly embarrassed at being called a hero. “All I wanted to do was protect my brother Marines,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No, I won’t — I’ll leave it with his continued dedication.<\/p>\n

He leaves in July for a third tour of duty in the Persian Gulf region.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ask a hero if he’s a hero and he’ll tell you no. Don’t bother asking this Marine — he is most definitely a hero. Outnumbered, pinned down and under attack from three directions, the Marines of Echo Company were in danger of being overrun by Iraqi insurgents hurling grenades and firing rockets and AK-47s. Lance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-middle-east","category-military","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}