Jason Harrington was having a tough day even before a roadside bomb blew his Humvee to pieces.

Moments earlier, the former New Cumberland resident, a specialist in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, had lost three buddies from his unit to another bomb.

So as the dust cleared from the deafening blast that wrecked his Humvee in Ramadi, Iraq, on Sept. 19, 2005, Harrington was determined not to lose any more.

He forgot about his own welfare and checked his fellow soldiers for injuries.

He fired back at the insurgents who had triggered the bomb and who set off another explosive that blasted the second Humvee in his patrol.

With the radios in both Humvees knocked out, Harrington grabbed a portable one to call for support and exposed himself to enemy fire to secure better reception.

And if that wasn't enough, he joined a sweep to root out the insurgents who'd set up the ambush.

"I was just doing what I had to do," said Harrington, 27, a 2000 Cedar Cliff High School graduate who lives in Lancaster. "I think any other soldier would have done the same thing."