Sgt. Matthew Woodall (USMC)A reluctant hero received the nation’s third-highest combat award at Camp Pendleton Friday.
Matthew Woodall, now a civilian, told the Marine Corps to just put his Silver Star in the mail. Instead, the soft-spoken 28-year-old from Kentucky stood ramrod straight on the parade ground as the medal was pinned on his blue dress shirt.
His 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment comrades were not going to let the sergeant’s valor in one of the deadliest districts of Afghanistan go unheralded.
“What an extraordinary opportunity to reward a real hero,” said Maj. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson, commanding general of the 1st Marine Division. “If you think this award is just another award, a routine award, you are wrong. This is an exclusive award that we hold and guard very jealously.”
It was a hot, dirty day in Sangin in July 2011. Woodall led his 12-man squad out for an early morning security patrol.
They were showing American presence in the district full of enemy fighters. The U.S. military surge was beginning to work in Afghanistan, but it was the result of hard-won battles like the ones by the Marines in Helmand province.
Seventeen 1/5 Marines were killed during that deployment, and 160 earned Purple Hearts. Their brother Camp Pendleton battalion, the 3/5, accounted for about half of the 55 Marine deaths there since October 2010.
This, then, is a story of both valor and loss.
Shots rang out and Lance Cpl. Norbert Mendez fell, right in front of Woodall. Without thinking, the squad leader rushed forward to block any more bullets. He returned fire, then dropped to his knees to shield Mendez until medical help came. Sadly, the lance corporal died from his wounds.
It was an all-day battle from compound to compound against a larger enemy force of 30 to 40 fighters.
The Silver Star citation credits Woodall with organizing an assault on the nearest enemy position while repelling repeated attacks on his flank. When another squad was pinned down, the corporal led his men in a counterattack through several compounds.
Then, after a full day of fighting, the order came down: Move to ambush an enemy force that was massing for another attack.
Woodall and his squad crawled through a two-foot-high cornfield for an hour to catch them by surprise. It was more than 100 degrees, and they were weighed down by helmets and body armor. The field’s mud jammed their rifles.
“Matt, you had a lot of responsibility that day,” Nicholson said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had anybody hurt in Sangin, and that’s because of the incredible work of the battalions like 3/5 and 1/5 that went in there and really took care of business. It used to be one of the worst cities in the entire country.”
Roughly 125 Silver Stars have been awarded to U.S. Marines since September 2001. This is the 78th for Pendleton’s 1st Marine Division, officials said.
Woodall doesn’t enjoy talking about that day, or himself.
“I’m not a big fan of all the attention,” he said after the ceremony, occasionally punctuated by artillery practice from the surrounding hills.
“They just reminded me that it’s part of the 1/5’s legacy, and that it’s important for people to know what happened in Sangin,” he said. “And that this is a part of it, whether I like it or not.”
The early part of the fight happened fast. Mendez fell, and Woodall reacted without much thought. A corporal then, he’d only been squad leader for two months.
“It was just a natural thing to do,” he said. “When you are over there with these guys every day, your natural instinct to protect them.”
But the rest of the day was a long, painful slog.
“When you are actually there in the situation, it’s absolutely terrifying. It’s dirty. It’s not like the movies at all,” Woodall said.
The 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment is now in Helmand province. The work has morphed into training Afghans to police their own country.
President Barack Obama has committed to winding down U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, though a residual force may remain after that.
Back home after his 7-month deployment, Woodall decided to pursue his education when his enlistment ran out late last year.
He is majoring in homeland security at Eastern Kentucky University. His goal is to move to Washington, D.C., and continue working for the government, possibly with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
A single guy, Woodall brought his mother, grandmother, sister and nephew with him to the Pendleton ceremony. The family sat in the front row as the two-star general awarded Woodall’s medal and the 1,000-person battalion looked on.
Lt. Col. Keven Matthews, 1/5 commanding officer, said a Marine’s family plays a part in how he performs.
“Combat valor is partially about the man to the left and right of you, but that’s not all of it. The other two-thirds is what’s inside the man’s heart. That’s character that’s built over years,” Matthews said.
“Family, the people sitting here, are the people who helped build that character from the day you were born,” he said.
Plus, Woodall acknowledged after the ceremony, being from Paducah, Ky., it wasn’t his first time in a cornfield.
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