by Staff Sgt. Triggs

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Oct. 25, 2001) - Seventy Pentagon personnel were honored Oct. 23 for their acts of bravery on Sept. 11 when a jetliner crashed into the Pentagon and sent a rolling ball of fire through its corridors.

About half of the recipients received the Soldier's Medal for rescuing people trapped in the burning inferno. The ceremony was held at Conmy Hall, Fort Myer, Va.

There were five types of awards issued including the Defense of Freedom Medal, a newly authorized medal to honor civilians who are wounded or killed as a result of hostile action against the United States.

"I have many memories ... of Sept. 11 ... But few are as strong as what I saw in the hallways and on the grounds of the Pentagon in the minutes and hours following the attack," Sgt. Maj. of the Army Jack Tilley said during the hour-long awards ceremony.

"What I saw is exactly what I should have seen," Tilley said. "Americans coming to the aid of their fallen comrades."

Twenty-eight soldiers received the Soldier's Medal, the highest military award for bravery. Three Army civilians received the Exceptional Civilian Service for Bravery medal, which is the highest award granted by the Secretary of the Army to Army civilian personnel. Four received the Distinguished Civilian Service for Bravery award, which is granted to private citizens who exhibit great courage to benefit the government or its personnel.

Twenty-seven soldiers received the Purple Heart and 19 civilians received the Defense of Freedom Medal for injuries they received Sept. 11. Several soldiers and civilians got more than one award.

Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki conducted his own awards ceremony, when he presented three hospitalized awardees their medals at their bedside.

At the start of the award ceremony, the first chord struck by the Army band put the audience in a patriotic mood. Some family members of the recipients were mouthing the words to "God Bless America," or swaying to other upbeat tunes from the band. There were no hymnals played, and there was only talk about the bravery of the survivors.

The 70 heroes stood during the awards presentation -- some with visible wounds from that horrific day of Sept. 11. As Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John Keane and Secretary of the Army Thomas White walked down the isle they saw people leaning on crutches or unable to shake their hands because of bandaged hands and arms.

Three-month-old Elisha Gallop sat in the audience, as his mother Spc. April Gallop, from the Network Infrastructure Services Agency, received the Purple Heart. Elisha was unaware that he was with his mother when she earned that award.

The day of the attack Gallop brought her son to work to enroll him in the Pentagon Child Development Center. "Everything happened so fast," Gallop said. "I remember thinking that we had been bombed. The blast blew Elisha from his stroller, and then it caught on fire.

"I could hear Elisha, but I couldn't see him. I was trapped from the waist down, there was fire and smoke, and I really felt that there was no way we were going to get out."

Gallop said eventually she was able to free herself from the rubble. She helped someone else who was trapped, and they both started feeling for Elisha. The smoke was so thick that they couldn't see anything, Gallop said. Under a pile of debris, Gallop found Elisha, and with the help of others, they were able to get out of the building.

"Today is a good day, because I'm not receiving this award posthumously, and I'm here to be his mother, and he's here to be my son," Gallop said. "But I'm still angry at the enemy. However, they will pay."

Many Americans including Keane believe that the ones who orchestrated the Sept. 11 attack underestimated the strength of the United States, and they will pay.

"The terrorists that live in the shadows and who have waged war on the freedoms that we hold so dear believe that they achieved a victory in New York City and at the Pentagon," Keane said.

"They are like many who have made the same miscalculation ... the Japanese and Hitler's Army during World War II, a series of unending Soviet leaders during the Cold War, Moammar Gaddafi in Lybia, Sadam Hussain in Iraq, and most recently Milosovich in the Balkans. All of them used fear as a weapon and each and every time the American people rose to the occasion."

Award Recipients are as follows:

Soldier's Medal and the Purple Heart

 

Staff Sgt. Christopher Braman
Lt. Col. Victor Correa
Sgt. Roxane Cruz-Cortes
Maj. John Grote
Lt. Col. Robert Grunewald
Col. Philip McNair,
Capt. Darrell Oliver
Spc. Michael Petrovich
Sgt. Maj. Tony Rose
Lt. Col. Marilyn Wills

 

Soldiers Medal

 

Lt. Col. Paul Anderson
Maj. Victor Badami
Col. Gerald Barrett
Lt. Col. Thomas Cleary, III
Lt. Col. Kenny Cox
Col. John Davies
Col. Adrian Erckenback
CW5 Paul Heggood
Maj. Michael Kerzie
Capt. John Lamm'e
Lt. Col. William McKinnon
Col. Karl Knoblauch Jr.
Col. Edwin Morehead
Lt. Col. Pummill, Danny
Maj. David Richardson
Sgt. Matthew Rosenberg
Maj. Patrick Tennis
Col. Roy Wallace

 

Distinguished Civilian Service for Bravery

 

Stuart Fluke
Janice Jackson
James Knickerbocker
Jeffrey Moore

 

Purple Heart

 

Cpl. Eduardo Brunoporto
Lt. Col. Michael Beans
Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell
Lt. Col. Lawrence Dudney Jr.
Lt. Col. Gregory Fritz
Spc. April Gallop
Maj. Regina Grant
Sgt. Maj. Ronald Houle
Maj. John Jessup
Capt. Lincoln Leibner
Lt. Col. Philip Smith
Lt. Col. Robert Snyder
Lt. Col. Marion Ward
Sgt. 1st Class Michael Weaver Sr.
Maj. David King Jr.
Col. Larry Thomas
Maj. John Thurman

 

Exceptional Civilian Service for Bravery

 

Lee Ann Gutwald
David Theall

 

Defense of Freedom Medal

 

Martha Carden
Stephanie Brown
Glen Heffel
Luticia Hook
Racquel Kelley
Louise Kurtz
Betty Maxfield
Sheila Moody
Dalisay Olaes
Ann Parham
Valecia Parker
Wendy Peer
Juan Cruz-Santiago
Wayne Sinclair
Mark Skipper
Patrick Smith
Lois Stevens
William Wright
John Yates
Alan Wallace