RELEASE NUMBER: 130225-03
DATE POSTED: FEBRUARY 25, 2013
92nd CAB (A) Moore receives medal for valor
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (USASOC News Service, Feb. 25, 2013) – “Our main focus was to expand our security bubble, recruit for the Afghan Local Police, pushing out from where we had presence in the village,” said Staff Sgt. Brandon Moore.
That’s how Moore, a 92nd Civil Affairs Battalion (Airborne) medic, described the mission of the combined combat reconnaissance patrol, a mission on which he saved his patrol leader’s life and for which he received the Army Commendation Medal for valor.
On Feb. 1, Moore was presented the award by 95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Airborne) commander, Col. James C. Brown at a ceremony witnessed by his family and his battalion Soldiers at Bank Hall on Fort Bragg.
On that hot, sunny day of April 9, 2012, Moore was at the rear of the patrol, when the shout for a medic came from the other side of the bend in the rocky, mountain footpath that opened up into an open area of the river valley.
The patrol was being attacked by small arms and PKM [machine gun] fire from multiple directions. A round had hit the Navy SEAL (Sea, Air and Land) patrol leader in the leg, causing major bleeding and possibly severing the femoral artery.
Moore immediately moved forward. “I went down to where I thought they were, behind a rock outcropping and calling out, to figure out where they were. They were still engaged in weapons fire.”
What happened next is a blur for Moore. “It happened pretty fast, treating the patient, getting him behind the hillside. I was just doing my job, really.” Moore said.
The recommendation for the award reads: “Without hesitation and with total disregard for his own personal safety, Sergeant Moore exposed himself to enemy fire to come to the aid of the officer, immediately applying critical and lifesaving medical care.
While under persistent attack from the enemy, he personally shielded the casualty from enemy fire and single-handedly coordinated follow-on care and movement to the casualty collection point. Upon moving to the helicopter landing zone, Sergeant Moore continued to treat and selflessly shield the wounded SEAL officer with his own body until…safely extracted.”
“I wish this could be like a team award,” Moore said. “I witnessed other guys on our CA team and the Navy Special Warfare team all doing valorous acts throughout the deployment, putting themselves in jeopardy, so someone else didn’t have to, to move out behind cover, to do communication with a bird [helicopter] or with a TOC [tactical operations center]. I was just doing my job.”
After presenting the medal, Brown told Moore, “I guarantee that you are looked at extremely favorably from the Trident (Navy) side of the [Special Operations] house.”
Asked to address the audience at the close of the ceremony, Moore was brief: “I would like to thank my wife for putting up with me all these years. I couldn’t do it without her.”
“That’s it?” Col. Brown asked. Moore nodded yes, as the audience broke into laughter and applause.
A native of Oklahoma, Moore joined the Army in 2001 and served several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as an Infantryman while serving with the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii and 1st Cavalry Division in Texas. This was his first deployment to Afghanistan after completing his CA medic in 2011.
Asked why he volunteered to become a medic, Moore said, “I figured if I could learn a skill that would give another Soldier more of a chance to come back to his family, that was what I wanted to do.”