Pfc. Christopher Fernandez, of Battery A, 1st Battalion, 21st Field Artillery Regiment, was awarded a Silver Star Medal for valor by the 1st Cavalry Division commanding general Aug. 13.
The Silver Star is the Army's fifth highest medal for valor and the third highest during combat. The medal is rarely given to enlisted Soldiers.
Fernandez was awarded the Silver Star for his actions on the night of May 5, when his unit came under attack. Fernandez, a Tucson, Ariz. native, was on a patrol through the Baghdad's Saidiyah neighborhood when insurgents ambushed his unit.
An improvised explosive device hit the patrol's rear vehicle. Immediately following the explosion, the patrol was barraged with small-arms fire. The IED explosion killed two U.S. soldiers, wounded five others and rendered their vehicle inoperable.
In all the chaos, Fernandez saw the stricken vehicle's M-240B machine gun was unused. Fernandez knew that another weapon would suppress the enemy's fire long enough to evacuate the wounded and leave the area. He left his vehicle, ran to the disabled humvee, recovered the weapon and its ammunition, and then opened fire on the enemy.
What made all of that spectacular was the recovered weapon's condition, said Capt. Thomas Pugsley, Battery A's commander. The handguards covering the machine-gun's barrel, so the gunner's hands won't burn, were blown off in the explosion. That didn't matter to Fernandez though; he kept firing even though his hands were burning.
Almost 10 minutes later, the wounded were loaded onto Fernandez's vehicle, and the ambush site was abandoned.
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