Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe, is a Silver Star recipient for whom a campaign, led by his former battalion commander, fought to get his award upgraded to a Medal of Honor. In December, then-President Trump signed a bill authorizing the military’s most prestigious award to be posthumously awarded to Cashe.
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Cashe was on a route clearance patrol in Samarra, Iraq in Oct. 2005. His normal vehicle had been declared non-mission capable before the patrol moved out, so he hopped into the gunner turret of the lead Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
During the patrol, the vehicle struck a buried improvised explosive device and the results were catastrophic. The blast severed a hydraulic line for the rear ramp and spewed fuel all over the vehicle’s interior. After the vehicle strike, insurgents began firing on the convoy. Cashe was the first to escape the vehicle and, though burned and covered in fuel, was not yet badly injured.
Ignoring the danger to himself, Cashe moved to the driver’s door and removed the soldier from the wreckage. While he was doing this, the squad leader in the troop compartment managed to open a hatch, and here is where Cashe really distinguished himself.
Cashe reached through the flames around the opening and began pulling the severely injured soldiers out of the vehicle. While removing the first soldier from the rear compartment, the fuel on Cashe’s uniform ignited. Despite this, Cashe would return to the vehicle and rescue five more soldiers alive from the vehicle. He even returned a final time to pull out the body of the unit’s interpreter.
Cashe then refused to take a spot in the casualty evacuation vehicles until all of his men were secured. By the time Cashe accepted a ride away from the battlefield, he had second and third-degree burns over 72 percent of his body. He would die five days later at the San Antonio Military Medical Center in Texas.
To learn more about Cashe, read this article from army.mil.