War Heroes Ten - Luis E. Fonseca Jr.

[Mr. Moto]

Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England presented the Navy Cross to Hospitalman Luis E. Fonseca Jr. in a ceremony held at Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune, N.C., Aug. 11.

Fonseca, a 23-year-old corpsman, was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom March 23, 2003, while serving with Amphibious Assault Vehicle Platoon, Company C, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, Task Force Tarawa, II Marine Expeditionary Force.

During his Company’s assault and seizure of the Saddam Canal Bridge, five Marines were wounded when their amphibious assault vehicle was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. Fonseca, in the face of small arms, machine gun and intense rocket-propelled grenade fire, evacuated the Marines from the burning vehicle and established a casualty collection unit inside his own medical evacuation vehicle. There, he stabilized two Marines with lower limb amputations and administered morphine. After his vehicle was rendered immobile by enemy fire and again, under intense gunfire, Fonseca organized litter teams and directed the movement of four of the Marines, while personally carrying one wounded Marine over open ground to another vehicle.

“I was doing my job,” said Fonseca. “I wish I could have done more.”

From here. I cannot find the full citation at this time, like in the other threads.

For those who didn't catch the rest of this thread series, this is my attempt to recognize servicemembers who don't, for some reason, make the news. There are genuine heroes coming out of this conflict, however you feel about our reasons for being there.

Luis Fonseca is a remarkable guy. He's only 23, and there's a whole bunch of people who are alive because of his actions in Iraq. How many of us can claim that about anything we did when we were 23.

Previous War Heroes Threads - Brian Chontosh
Jason Dean Cunningham
Britt Slabinski
Justin D. Lehew
Mark E. Mitchell
John Chapman
Joseph B. Perez
Marco A. Martinez
Stephen Bass

[Mr. Moto]

I'm bumping this because, for some reason, it's off the page entirely.

Hope this gets it back on.

[BMalion]

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the heroes for doing what they do, and yourself, Mr. Moto for bringing these stories to our attention.

[Ghanima]

I opened this board this morning thinking about these very threads - and wondering if any more were coming. Thanks for continuing with them.

[Mr. Moto]

I limit my tributes to those servicemembers who receive Navy Crosses, Air Force Crosses or Distinguished Service Crosses.

These awards are service specific. The Navy Cross is given to sailors and Marines. The Distinguished Service Cross is an Army award. All of them are second only to the Medal of Honor.

These awards, then, are not awarded often. They represent truly amazing acts of heroism. That's not to say there aren't other heroes, though. 166 Silver Stars have been won in Iraq and Afghanistan. The number of Bronze Star with "V" device awardees is higher yet.

There are reportedly Medal of Honor citations being processed as well.

For the purposes of this board, to remind everyone here of the sacrifices being made by our servicemembers, just passing news along of these awards works nicely. Everyone who volunteers and serves honorably, however, deserves some measure of respect.

[Ghanima]

So this is the most recent of these medals to be awarded, since July? That would explain why there haven't been any of these threads in a while. My powers of deduction astound me.
Funny coincidence though, that I was thinking about these and here this thread was.