In the USA for the first time in the last 20 years, the highest military award of the country – the Honor Medal – was handed over to a black serviceman. About it reports The Washington Post.
As the Edition notes, Alwyn Cash (Alwyn Cashe) became the first African American, who was awarded such award from September 11, 2001. Prior to this, the black soldiers of the US Army, who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, received other high awards, but none of them was presented to the hill medal.
Medal was handed to representatives of the cache family – he himself died in November 2005.
According to The Washington Post, in January 2005, cache together with its division – the 1st battalion of the 15th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division – was directed to the old airfield north of the Tiger River in Iraq, where the American command Created McCenzi base. Soldiers who served there during patrolling of nearby territories were repeatedly faced with the militants of the terrorist organization Al-Qaida (prohibited in Russia). “It was always a powder barrel. Somewhere there were fighting,” the colonel was remembered by Jimmy Khataui, who was at that time the cache company commander.
On October 17, the servicemen based on Mackenzi instructed to conduct exploration within the framework of ensuring the safety of the route, according to which the supplies were carried out from the nearby Balad airbase. Because of the sandy storm, the aircraft could not produce preliminary aerial intelligence, but the cache together with several other departments still decided to start patrolling. In total, three armored personnel carriers with 17 soldiers and a translator were involved in the operation.
When the column was located a few kilometers from the base, the first of the combat vehicles, where the cache was located, blew up on the road the explosive device and caught fire. At the same time, the soldier, sowing first, began to endure the soldiers left from the fire in the armored personnel carrier. According to colleagues, when the cache pulled out the last person, his clothes were almost completely destroyed by a flame.
After the cache incident was delivered to the hospital with burns 72 percent of the body. For three weeks, doctors fought for his life, but he developed an infection, and he died. Almost immediately, the cache was presented to the Silver Star – the third largest US military award – for the manifested valor. However, it was not possible to achieve a medal of Honor for a long time.
As a result, the publication notes, who fought for the recognition of the merit of Cash Cash, was still able to convince the leadership of the US Army to submit it to the country’s highest award, albeit posthumously. Initially, it was assumed that the medal relatives of the serviceman would present Donald Trump to leaving the president. However, because of the riots and the assault of the Capitol in January, the ceremony did not work. In this regard, the presentation of the award has passed with the participation of the current American leader Joe Bayden.