On most days, a combat photographer’s main responsibility is to shoot images. However, during a patrol in Iraq on Aug. 13, 2006, then-Petty Officer 1st Class Jackey Bratt was forced to put down her camera and pick up her weapon to defend fellow servicemembers and Iraqi soldiers from an insurgent attack.
He felt the two objects hit him in the back. When he looked, he saw two grenades at the feet of one of his fellow Marines. Then-Lance Cpl. Joshua Moore, a Marine scout sniper, picked up one grenade and threw it out of the compound his unit was occupying. The second grenade was corroded and didn’t explode.
Air Force Senior Airman Zachary Hoeh scanned the hard-packed hillsides of the Afghanistan desert on May 26, 2011, looking for enemy triggermen who had virtually wiped out a squad of U.S. Army Pathfinders with improvised explosive devices.
When the bomb exploded, Navy Chief Petty Officer Justin Wilson didn’t run away. He ran toward it.
They were among the bravest who fought the Germans in the hellish War to End All Wars in Europe, but for nearly a century their legacy has been obscured by discrimination.
The eastern Afghan mountains and starry night sky were a ghostly orange in the lenses of Master Sgt. Thomas Case’s night-vision goggles.
When Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Petry receives the Medal of Honor in July, he’ll be the fourth hero from the war in Afghanistan to receive that recognition from President Barack Obama.
Were they heroes? Or were they fulfilling their job descriptions?