FORT HOOD, Texas - A 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Soldier was awarded the Purple Heart Medal last week for the injuries he sustained during a combat patrol in Mosul, Iraq last November.
Spc. Michael Cox, a gunner with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion and his patrol were tasked with escorting Mosul's Provincial Reconstruction Team to a hospital November 16, 2009.
As the patrol left, an armor-piercing grenade was thrown from over a cement barrier and exploded when it hit the rear vehicle in the patrol, Cox's vehicle. The concussion of the explosion knocked him unconscious and he sustained shrapnel wounds to his right arm and legs. As he regained consciousness, Cox pulled himself back up to the turret and manned his weapon until he was ordered to receive treatment.
Reluctant to talk about the incident, Cox said he was honored to receive the medal and that his training played into his actions that day.
"I saw that the medic was already treating someone," he said. "I just did what I've been trained to do."
Cox received the award in front of his leaders and peers, during a ceremony, June 4. He stood alone in front of the battalion formation as Col. Douglas Crissman pinned the medal on his uniform as leaders and troopers gathered to congratulate him.
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