Corporal Willie Apiata, New Zealand SAS.
Photo courtesy the New Zealand Army.
While on an early morning patrol, Apiata (then a Lance Corporal) was part of a New Zealand Special Air Service (NZSAS) Troop in Afghanistan that came under attack from about 20 enemy fighters. The troop was attacked with rocket propelled grenades, destroying one of the troop's vehicles and immobilising another. This was followed by sustained machine gun and automatic rifle fire from close range.A further rocket-propelled grenade attack blew Apiata off the bonnet of the vehicle he was stationed on. The two other personnel in the vehicle were wounded by shrapnel; one of them, Corporal D, was in a serious condition. After finding what cover was available, the three soldiers found that Corporal D had life-threatening injuries and was deteriorating rapidly. Apiata assumed command of the situation.
The three were about 70 metres in front of the rest of the troop, so Apiata decided the only option available was to carry Corporal D back to the rest of the troop. The other soldier was ordered to make his own way to the rear.
In part the citation for the award reads:
"In total disregard of his own safety, Lance Corporal Apiata stood up and lifted his comrade bodily. He then carried him across the seventy metres of broken, rocky and fire swept ground, fully exposed in the glare of battle to heavy enemy fire and into the face of returning fire from the main Troop position. That neither he nor his colleague were hit is scarcely possible. Having delivered his wounded companion to relative shelter with the remainder of the patrol, Lance Corporal Apiata re-armed himself and rejoined the fight in counter-attack."
Three other SAS soldiers are also to receive bravery awards for actions during the same mission. Two received the New Zealand Gallantry Decoration and one the New Zealand Gallantry Medal.
Well done, Soldier.
Davaid Farrar, a Kiwi blogger has more, and focuses on Corporal Apiata's honor.
Thus, it falls to Murray, Castle Metalsmith, to hit poor metal with a hammer to shatter its pretension and benign condescension.
I will note that Britain nor New Zealand are known for being profligate with medals.
Yet, both have living recipients of the Victoria Cross from Iraq and Afghanistan - in the case of Britain, two.
Yet we have... no living recipients of the Medal of Honor, despite our far greater numbers engaged in combat. As the Medal is usually awarded because someone has to retrieve other people's mistakes in planning or execution, this would indicate we're fighting this war simply many orders of magnitude better than we have our others. While there is no doubt we've been fighting very well at the tactical level, we still find ourselves, especially in the small unit/detachment arena, stuck in some very sticky situations.
Somehow, I suspect we're being really really really reticent to make the award - though I'm given to understand that there may actually be one in the works for award to a living recipient, in addition to at least one under consideration for a posthumous award.
Which brings to mind a different issue - *damn* we take a long time to process these. I don't mind being thorough, but sometimes it makes we wonder if it isn't because we aren't spending more time trying to find a reason to downgrade it than we are ensuring it meets the criteria.
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