PFC Christopher Fernandez - Someone You Should Know
Blackfive Blog
"I'm so proud of my husband. I love him so much. But there's part of me that wishes he would run and hide when the shooting starts." - Maritza Fernandez, August 17, 2004
“He bought those Soldiers time,” - 1st Lt. Ryan Swindell, PFC Fernandez's Platoon Leader
This one is for the Donovan (Redlegs!)...
In 1999, Christopher Fernandez and his family moved from Arkansas to Tuscon, Arizona. He was fourteen. After many hardships, he dropped out of school and earned his GED. He, like many Americans, decided to join the Army to better himself.
On the night of May 5th, PFC Fernandez (an artilleryman with the 1st Cavalry Division) was on a patrol. While normally a Multiple Rocket Launcher System crewman, he manned a M249 (machine gun) in the turret of a Humvee. From the Army News Service:
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.
Fernandez and other gunners fired their weapons to cover the soldiers recovering the dead and the wounded. Fernandez and the other gunners repelled the ambushers and he quickly ran out of ammunition.
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 the Fernandez’s vehicle, and the ambush site was abandoned.
Nineteen-year-old (and new father) PFC Christopher Fernandez was awarded the Silver Star, the third highest award for valor in combat.
Senator Jon Kyl had this to say, "...PFC Fernandez didn’t run and hide when the going got tough. Like many brave American soldiers before him, he did quite the opposite. His country owes it to him, and his family, to follow that example and continue to support his mission."
For some reason, since the award was made almost a month ago, the AP is reported this story on Saturday (Chicago Tribune link). That's a good thing...I just don't understand the timing.
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