FORT RICHARDSON, Alaska -- It takes a presidential order to award a U.S. soldier the Silver Star, the Army's third-highest honor, which is only given to troops who excel under fire.
Friday, one Fort Richardson soldier received the award, although he says he would gladly trade it in order to have his five brothers-in-arms that lost their lives on a late January day more than a year ago returned to him.
U.S. Army Alaska Commander Maj. Gen. Stephen Layfield said it was a very difficult day.
"It was a tough day," Layfield said. "It was a tough day for the Army. It was a tough day for everybody."
On Jan. 20, 2007, in Karbala, Iraq, five soldiers were resting and relaxing inside a provincial coordination center.
Sgt. 1st Class Sean Bennett is a member of the 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment.
"One soldier just had gotten off duty, one soldier was on duty and one of my (non-commissioned officers) was racked out because he had been on for about 19 hours straight," Bennett said.
Between 20 and 30 highly-trained insurgents wearing U.S. uniforms and speaking English drove through an Iraq police checkpoint and assaulted the compound where Bennett and others were staying, according to military officials.
"The gunshots that were coming through the room -- we were in a concrete room and they were just bouncing off everything," Bennett said.
Bennett was wounded. A bullet ricocheted and tore up his arm.
"Just lost that pretty little muscle that is no longer there," Bennett said.
The events of that day more than one year ago were played out Friday before hundreds on post who came to Bennett's Silver Star award ceremony.
Cpt. Daniel Mainor is a member of the 4th Brigade Airborne, 25th Infantry Division.
"While fighting to keep the door closed, the enemy tossed a hand grenade into the room and sprayed AK-47 gunfire through a small opening in the door, killing one and wounding three soldiers including Sgt. Bennett," Mainor said.
One of the men in that room, Staff Sgt. David Wallace said Bennett saved his life by keeping the Iraqi's out of the room.
"He's a hero," Wallace said. "We consider each other family, so it would be like me grabbing my kid out from the front of a car or something. Sgt. Bennett thinks of us as family. We think of him as family. It's just like saving your family."
Bennett and others were able to drive the attackers away but not before they abducted and later killed four troops who were overtaken in another room.
"When you lose one or two of them, three, four, five, it takes you a while to get back," Bennett said. "You earn things or presented things, sometimes you don't even know what you are doing as you are getting it or how it's going to be looked at by other people. It's more of a conversation piece now and I'd rather just put it behind me now."
Bennett said earning the Silver Star is likely to be a lot easier than wearing it. He is only the third soldier ever from the 4th Brigade, 25th Infantry Division to receive the award.
The others are Master Sgt. Thomas Ballard for his actions in an attack in Najaf, Iraq and Pfc. Jonathon Millican, who was killed in the same attack that injured Sgt. Bennett.
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