FORT CARSON — In every letter Michelle Melling wrote her son while he served in Iraq, she told him: “Just put your best foot forward.”
On Wednesday, her son, former staff sergeant Brent Baldwin, and another soldier, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Nathan Buelow, were honored with the Silver Star for doing just that, even though it meant putting their lives in danger.
The two received the award, the military’s third highest honor, in a hangar full of soldiers from the 10th Special Forces Group.
“This is a historic moment, the Silver Star is rarely given,” said Lt. Gen. Robert Wagner, commander of the Army’s Special Operations Command. “I thank you for who you are and what you do.”
Baldwin, 27 , who now owns a liquor store in Colorado Springs, said his strength came “from the guys around you. You stay there and just fight to the end. You think about your wife and going home. That’s pretty much it.”
Beyond that, he would not describe the events of April 9, 2004, in Baqubah, Iraq.
“It’s something,” the Michigan native said, “that you really don’t want to talk about.”
His citation tells the story:
Baldwin and his detachment were on patrol when they learned 500 anti-Iraqi forces were poised to attack coalition forces and Iraqi government assets.
Baldwin and two others moved to the rooftop of the Diyala Police Station. The enemy launched a dozen rocket-propelled grenades; three of them hit. Baldwin dug a trapped and wounded soldier out of the rubble and revived him while the hostile fire continued. He fired back from various spots on the roof and went on to lead his team to the first floor, where 350 rioting Iraqi inmates were trying to escape from the jail, the citation said.
CW2 Buelow, 34, from Dubuque, Iowa, received the award for heroics during an insurgent attack in Baghdad on July 9, 2006.
He led his team and 44 Iraqi Special Operations Forces during a raid that left a dozen insurgents dead. At one point, three combatants with AK-47s assaulted one side of the building. With weapons raised, the insurgents advanced toward a special forces’ soldier.
“With complete disregard of his own life and safety, CW2 Buelow assaulted toward the advancing enemy and engaged them, killing the first man and wounding a second insurgent,” his citation said.
While withdrawing from the building, Buelow maneuvered his entire convoy through a 360-degree ambush, the citation said.
“That strength comes from several different places,” Buelow said. “The No. 1 place it comes from is that bond that you form with your teammates. You live together, work together, sleep together. One of my teammates was at risk. It wasn’t a question of thought, it was a question of action.”
Erin Emery: 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com
