Ranger awarded Silver Star for valor in battle

Army Sgt. 1st Class Ray A. Plasterer was awarded the Silver Star on Oct. 17 at Fort Benning, Ga.

Ranger given Silver Star for valor in battle


By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Oct 19, 2008 9:22:31 EDT

Sgt. 1st Class Ray A. Plasterer said he hadn’t seen a firefight like the one he saw May 10 in Afghanistan since he and his fellow Rangers did their part during the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

This time, the firefight nearly cost Plasterer his life and on Oct. 17 he was awarded a Silver Star medal at Fort Benning, Ga., for what he did under a hail of withering gunfire.

The noonday sun was just beginning to bake the landscape as Plasterer, a reconnaissance assistant team sergeant with Regimental Special Troops Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, and a convoy of more than a dozen armored vehicles coursed through a hilly desert valley on a week-long intelligence collection patrol.

At a remote truck stop area, the group – a civilian and military joint strike patrol – dismounted and shortly became engulfed by small arms fire, rocket propelled grenades and fragmentary grenades, which quickly killed four and wounded five and plunged the group into an intense two-hour firefight.
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