Sgt. Paul Ray Smith, RIP
Fred Barnes writes in the Weekly Standard about the shameful lack of media attention on a true American hero. Sgt. Paul Ray Smith was just awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest military award this country can bestow. Barnes describes the incident:

Five days before Baghdad fell in April 2003, Sergeant Smith and his men were building a makeshift jail for captured Iraqi troops. Surprised by 100 of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guards, Smith and his men, some of them wounded, were pinned down and in danger of being overrun. Smith manned a 50-caliber machine gun atop a damaged armored vehicle. Exposed to enemy fire, he singlehandedly repelled the attack, allowing his men to scramble to safety. He killed as many as 50 of Saddam's elite soldiers and saved more than 100 American troops. Paul Ray Smith, 33, was killed by a shot to the head.

As Barnes writes, the media has scarcely given this true hero any attention at all. Every reporter and editor in this country should be thankful that men as brave as Sgt. Smith are out there to protect them.
- posted by Base10 @ 11:12 AM