Marine infantry squad leader earns Silver Star

Marine infantry squad leader earns Silver Star
Marine Corps Times
By Hope Hodge Seck
Staff writer
August 29, 2013

A rifleman from Camp Lejeune received the Silver Star on Aug. 28 for leading a successful night mission in 2012 that cleared more than 50 enemy compounds near an Afghan village without causing a single civilian casualty.

Second Marine Division Sgt. Maj. Bryan Zickefoose congratulates Sgt. Ryan Steinkamp on Aug. 28. The rifleman with 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, led his squad through a hostile village in Afghanistan in 2012 and cleared more than 50 compounds.
(Lance Cpl. Scott Whiting/Marine Corps)

Sgt. Ryan Steinkamp, a squad leader with 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, was pinned with the military’s third-highest valor award for his decisive battlefield leadership during a lengthy and grueling combat engagement while attached to Regimental Team Combat 6 in Afghanistan.

On April 17, 2012, Steinkamp and his squad were inserted by helicopter near the village of Payawak in Afghanistan's Helmand province, close to Forward Operating Base Delaram for a night mission that would become a test of combat skills and endurance. Steinkamp led the squad across 800 meters of terrain laced with mines en route to clear Payawak of insurgents, according to his award citation.

When the squad arrived at its objective, they were beset by enemy ambushes from multiple positions.
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