our mission was to conduct a hostage
rescue raid
on october 22 2015 in huizhou iraq
the kurdish regional government reached
out to the united states
for assistance for a hostage rescue raid
for this mission i was the assistant
team leader my team was responsible
for one of the buildings that the
hostage was being held in
what was significant is that there were
freshly dug graves and if we didn't
action this target then the hostages
will probably be executed
at that point it was our duty to bring
those men home
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that's when you make that transition
from soldier
to warrior and that's when all choking
stops and that's when you do your last
minute checks and
that's what it's came down
ramp drops it's a complete brown out
part of the compound was already in a
pretty intense fire fight
as we maneuvered to our building we
throw out the ladders
mother part of my team went over to
their block musician
that's when we hear that there was a man
down
and it was master josh wheeler
that's when one of my teammates looked
the right eye and said follow me
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we cut the locks on the prison doors and
open the cell and
you know over 25 about 25 hostages in
one cell and
probably 11 in the other and
you see their faces light up and
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they're being liberated and some are
crying
some are excited and while that's going
on there's still an intense fire fight
going on
another building you can see the flames
you hear
all the explosions going on and here on
the radio
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urgent call for assistance and that's
when i looked at
a teammate i told him hey let's get in
the fight he said let's go
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and we'll run the real few you know
the enemies right below us the smoke and
the
kind of repelled us from window ring
down
and that's when you they're yelling at
us and
we're yelling at them and you know we're
employing small arms and
hand grenades on the enemy bands below
and that's when you hear
suicide bombers initiating their suicide
vest right below us and shaking the
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rooftop
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and once you're able to control your
fear that's the bridge
to personal courage and personal courage
is contagious on the battlefield
one of the teams was holding down the
breach point all the way down to
the last magazine you know bullets were
passing through the uniforms and
peeking the breach and i see the same
prison door
that was on the the other building
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called for a set of bolt cutters and
start makers like hey i got you the
beginning engagement in combat it's in
the back room
i'm there's a small foyer i was able to
maneuver into
and cut the top lock
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took the ball cutters back from him it's
difficult to breathe
smoke pouring out it's hot i was able to
cut that bottom lock and a bump down and
tell them hey cqb cqb close course
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battle
that's when we hear that the building is
starting to collapse
so the building's starting to collapse
we're getting shot at it's on fire
and we have hostages inside there's a
mandatory evacuation call
so my sergeant major is pulling the guys
from
one of the rooms and i'm like a third
base coach
waving them waiting through the initial
breach point that snatch isis flag off
the wall stuff into my pocket
i see that the train of hostages had
stopped
so i grabbed one of the hostages and
moved through the breach point to get
the train of hostages going
i went back into the building and
noticed that uh one of the hostages had
given up on basically giving up on life
so he's over 200 pounds big fella and uh
so basically grabbed him you know by the
back of the collar and drunk him through
the breach point
at that point uh then i ran back in for
one last check
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you know then my sergeant major told me
that hey you get them out of the um
you know the other building so basically
made a human wall
and to allow the hostages to pass behind
us and
you know as we engaged the other
building we had to cease fire
so the hostages could run behind us
because they would stop
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our sergeant major pulls us in and he
informed us that
master sergeant josh wheeler had been
killed in action
that's when our teammates tell us what
joshua did that day
his last words before he moved to the
sound of the guns were on me
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the medal of honor represents everything
great about our country
and for me i don't consider myself a
recipient
of this medal i consider myself a
guardian of this medal
what's important for me is that my
teammates legacies
will live on with this medal of honor
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you