Marine to be given posthumous Silver Star

Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Marine from Louisville who was killed in a gun battle in Iraq last year will be awarded the Silver Star posthumously.

One of the military’s highest awards, the Silver Star will be presented to the family of Sgt. David Neil Wimberg on Aug. 20 at the Navy Marine Corps Reserve Center in Columbus, Ohio.

Wimberg, 24, was a member of a Marine Reserve unit based there. He was killed in Hadithah, in western Iraq on May 25, 2005.

 
His brother, Mike Wimberg, said their parents, Denny and Tricia Wimberg of Louisville, plan to accept the award.

“It will not replace him, and we’d much rather have him back. But for the family, it’s a nice honor,” Mike Wimberg said.

The award, the third-highest behind the Medal of Honor and Navy Cross, is given for valor in combat.

Wimberg, a 1999 graduate of Louisville Trinity High School, was a squad leader in Iraq. He and his fellow Marines were pinned down in a street after an enemy ambush, according to a citation signed by Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter.

It said Wimberg left his covered position, “maneuvered through intense small-arms fire and scaled a wall” to reach the courtyard where the attackers were.

“Although twice driven back by high volumes of enemy fire, on his third attempt, he opened the gate and allowed his squad to enter” the courtyard. After two failed attempts to breach the front door of the house where the gunmen had holed up, “Sgt. Wimberg kicked in the door.”

Wimberg was then face to face with four armed insurgents, and he “engaged the enemy at close quarters, firing his M16-A4 rifle until he was shot and fell to the ground unconscious,” the citation said.

His actions “created the momentum needed to break the ambush. Many Marines’ lives were saved as a result of Sgt. Wimberg’s decisive and selfless actions,” it said.

Gunnery Sgt. Larry Bowman, who served with Wimberg in Iraq, described him as “an exceptional Marine and a great leader. We had great respect for him.”

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Information from: The Courier-Journal

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 Out of every 100 men, ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are just targets, Nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back." - Hericletus, circa 500 BC

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IMO

SFC Richard J. Lacey
LLDS,RCG 1st Sig Bde.
31JAN1968
104535N 1063940E(XS816898)

"Hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and women are deployed across the world in the war on terror. By bringing hope to the oppressed, and delivering justice to the violent, they are making America more secure. "
George W. Bush

Do you listen to yourself when you talk; or do you just fade in and out?

God Bless All!

FOGs like me from the Cold War/Vietnam era are continually awed by your outstanding performance.

"American Parachutists...devils in baggy pants...are less than 100 meters from my outpost line. I can't sleep at night; they pop up from nowhere and we never know when or how they will strike next. Seems like the black-hearted devils are everywhere..."
(An entry in a German officer's diary found after the Battle of Anzio)