Sunday, December 20, 2009

"They Hear The Sound of Guns, and They Respond"

Gunnery Sergeant John Mosser, USMC, has received the Navy Cross for heroism in Afghanistan.

Mosser was the team sergeant of the Marine patrol that was pinned down by heavy sniper and automatic-weapons fire in a small valley on June 26.

“I had been in firefights before but not like that,” Mosser said Friday. “It was unique. The enemy was well entrenched and firing at us from a high angle above. We were just reacting. There wasn’t much thinking — just return fire and take cover.”

Mosser’s Navy Cross citation said the gunnery sergeant’s reaction was gallant, that he helped save Marines during the bloody battle.

“He single-handedly dragged the wounded Marine over 35 feet to a covered position and administered first aid,” the citation said in part, describing one of Mosser’s heroics during the firefight. “With the entire patrol desperately pinned down, one Marine killed, and five more severely wounded, he devised a plan to break contact and extract his team.”

He then called for and adjusted close air support, dragged that wounded Marine a second time to safety and directed the Marines still in the fight.

Continually exposing himself to enemy fire, he maneuvered the remaining members of his team still trapped in the ambush, all the time constantly engaging the enemy until everyone was safe.


A Marine and a Navy Cross.

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