Vice President Dick Cheney awarded Spc. Veronica Alfaro with the Bronze Star Tuesday, March 18, 2008, during a rally for U.S. troops at Balad Air Base, Iraq. "I can't describe the feeling I had when he awarded me the Bronze Star," said Alfaro, 2nd Platoon senior medic, Bravo Company. "It is definitely a moment I will always cherish; I will never forget it."Here is Spc. Alfaro's story.
Alfaro is from Modesto, Ca. The Bronze Star is the fourth highest award a servicemember can receive in combat for either valor or meritorious performances of duty. (White House photo by David Bohrer.) More here.Alfaro, a combat medic and driver with Bravo Company, 297th Support Battalion, was confronted by heavily armed insurgents Jan. 15 when driving a gun truck as an escort to the civilian convoy on the main U.S. supply route between Baghdad and Balad, Iraq, the Guard said.
The ambush came just after midnight, according to the award citation.
Four machine guns lit up the night, with small-arms fire bursting out across the flat landscape from positions concealed behind brush. Alfaro turned into the fire to protect some of the civilian drivers and give her gunner a shot at the attackers, according to the Guard. A barrage of bullets pelted her vehicle in the process.
She wasn't hit, but the civilian driver of the vehicle ahead of her was. Alfaro grabbed some medical supplies and sprinted to the position, more than 50 yards away from her own, despite the persisting onslaught. Members of Alfaro's crew reported seeing bullets kicking up dust at her feet and tracer rounds whizzing past her head as she ran, the Guard said.
When she reached the wounded driver, she used her body as a shield as she tried to help him, though he later died from his injuries. Moments later, a report of another wounded civilian driver came over the radio, leading Alfaro to hop into a gun truck and rush to the position, where she saved that driver's life, according to the Guard.
