BUSH GIVES MEDAL OF HONOR TO LATE SOLDIER
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
Outnumbered and exposed, Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith stayed at his gun, beating back an advancing Iraqi force until a bullet took his life.
Smith is credited with protecting the lives of scores of lightly armed American soldiers who were beyond his position in the battle, on April 4, 2003, near the gates of Baghdad International Airport.
Today, exactly two years after Smith`s death, President Bush is awarding Smith the Medal of Honor, the nation`s highest award for valor. His widow, Birgit, decided that the couple`s 11-year-old son, David, will accept the medal on his father`s behalf.
"It was a very easy decision for me because, after all, he`s the man of the house now." she said. She said she often hears from the men her husband saved, as well as their families. "They`re so grateful for what Paul did that day," she said on ABC`s "Good Morning America."
It is only the third Medal of Honor given for actions since the Vietnam War, and the first from the Iraq war.
