Camp Lejeune Marine receives Silver Star

Lejeune Marine receives Silver Star
July 11, 2012
CPL. JEFF DREW - USMC

A Camp Lejeune Marine received the Silver Star this week for his actions during a patrol that shifted from recon to firefight in a matter of minutes.

Lance Cpl. Jeffrey Cole was awarded the nation’s third highest award for valor Tuesday for his actions on Aug. 17, 2010, in Marjah, Afghanistan.

Cole, with 2nd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, was part of a patrol that included six Marines from his squad, a Navy corpsman and three Marines from a Professional Mentor Team, a group primarily responsible for training and working with Afghan National Security Forces. It was a reconnaissance mission to photograph the local landscape and populace and learn as much as they could about the area. At 1:30 p.m., the patrol made its way to a location they had been the night before and spoke with local Afghans and searched the area. As they left the final compound two hours later, they came under attack from about 20 insurgents entrenched only 30 meters away.

Pinned down by heavy enemy fire and without radio contact, the five injured Marines made their way into a nearby canal for cover as Cole, who had himself taken three rounds into the ceramic plates protecting his body from small-arms fire, provided suppressive fire with his rifle.
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