HOW SFC MADSEN TURNED THE FIGHT AROUND WHILE BADLY WOUNDED
SFC Ronald Madsen was part of an American special forces element sent to secure the fiercely contested Mohmand Valley in eastern Afghanistan together with their Afghan partners. Deployed as a weapons specialist, he led his team for eight hours against IS fighters who pulled the Americans into one firefight after another. The worst was still ahead of them.
As darkness fell and the special forces moved to take shelter in a house, a devastating explosion tore through the building. More than 30 soldiers were wounded on the spot and four were killed. The huge blast wave threw SFC Madsen to the ground and riddled him with shrapnel. Before anyone could get to the cover of an armored vehicle, the IS fighters seized the moment and launched a coordinated attack.
Despite his wounds, Madsen ordered his comrades to fight off the attack at any cost and then crawled to one of the vehicles. He dragged himself up into the turret and covered the waves of attackers with a grenade launcher until the ammunition ran out. He then kept the enemy suppressed with a light machine gun until that too was shot dry. Next he picked up a portable MK14 grenade launcher and rained 40mm rounds down on the IS fighters again.
His courage and resolve drove the few uninjured soldiers to throw everything they had into beating back the attack and to hold the area until the most seriously wounded could be evacuated. Madsen was awarded the Silver Star and 3 Purple Hearts for what he did.
“The worst part of war is surviving a battle when your friends did not. The fighting is the easy part. Looking into the eyes of the families whose loved ones gave their lives is the hardest fight you will ever face. War brings out the best and the worst in people. The kindness and compassion you see in combat cannot be put into words.” – Madsen
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