Army Ranger Earns Silver Star at Eglin Air Force Base

Army Ranger Earns Silver Star
Army.mil/News
by Aniesa Holmes
Mar 12, 2014

FORT BENNING, Ga. -- Sgt. 1st Class Anthony Fuentes was presented the Silver Star Medal March 4 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., for his actions in 2011 during an insurgent attack in Kunar Province, Afghanistan.

Fuentes, who is now with the 6th Ranger Training Battalion, was presented the Silver Star by Maj. Gen. H. R. McMaster, Fort Benning's commanding general.

While serving as a platoon sergeant for B Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, in October 2011, Fuentes led the defense of Shal Mountain during Operation Rugged Sarak. For more than a week, the company was in near-continuous enemy contact as insurgents sought to defeat coalition efforts to build a permanent Afghan base.

Fuentes, under heavy recoilless, rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire, led the defense of his lightly armed and undermanned section and repelled a nighttime enemy attack intent on overrunning his patrol base. He supervised the casualty collection point and enabled the successful evacuation of nine casualties.

Fuentes said he could only think of the men who fought beside him as he received the medal.
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