3 Minnesota National Guardsmen receive Soldier's Medal

3 guardsmen lauded for Iraq vehicle rescue
Army times
By Joe Gould
Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Oct 4, 2012 7:37:22 EDT

Three Minnesota National Guardsmen who pulled Iraqi civilians from the burning wreckage of a two-van collision and helped them get care have received the Army’s highest award for noncombat valor.

The trio — Staff Sgt. Nicholas Purkat, 27; Sgt. Shawn Schmidt, 29; and Spc. Christopher Edwards, 20 — received the Soldier’s Medal on Sept. 22 for their heroic actions in 2011 in southern Iraq.

“To me, I was just doing my job, what anyone would do during the whole Iraq and Afghanistan [wars],” Schmidt said. “There have been a lot of great things that a lot of soldiers, airmen and Marines have done. That was just the situation we were in.”

On Nov. 11, the three guardsmen from the “Minnesota Red Bulls,” the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, were providing convoy security with their unit during the withdrawal of forces from Iraq.

Their convoy that day was stopped on a highway about 20 miles west of Basra when a smoke plume rose above it, said Schmidt, who was behind the lead truck. He and the others rushed to the scene to find the two vehicles in the collision. The vans were not yet in flames.

In one of the vans, the driver appeared dead, and his passenger was drifting in and out of consciousness and was trapped.

Schmidt soon realized the vehicle was on fire, with more people inside — three toward the front and six in the rear.

“That’s when we started prying the doors, ripping out the glass and pulling them out,” he said.
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