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Silver Stars Awarded to 3 for Bravery : Heroism: They risked lives to keep U.S. forces from being stalled by Iraqi snipers or minefields.

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From Associated Press

Army Specialist Jonathan Alston dreamed of joining the Special Forces and was looking for action. Pfc. Craig Burton had just returned from Korea and didn’t want to go to the Gulf. Pvt. Stephen Schaefer was a green recruit.

On Friday, they became the first servicemen in the Persian Gulf War to receive Silver Stars for gallantry.

Secretary of the Army Michael P. W. Stone pinned the nation’s third-highest award for bravery on their chests during a ceremony that was held at the edge of a parking lot in a U.S. military compound.

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All three were members of the 2nd Armored Division’s Tiger Brigade, which helped hold the left flank of allied forces advancing into Kuwait and then sealed off exit roads from Kuwait city to keep the Iraqis from fleeing north.

Under enemy fire, the three risked their lives to keep the rapidly advancing U.S. troops from getting bogged down by minefields or snipers.

Alston, 27, is from Chapel Hill, N.C. Schaefer, 21, is from Claymont, Del. Burton, 21, is from Pascagoula, Miss.

According to the presidential citation, Alston and Schaefer on Feb. 25 rushed an Iraqi bunker, where one or more Iraqis were firing at U.S. troops who were trying to clear mine-laden Iraqi trenches.

In moving through a minefield to attack the bunker, Alston set off a tripwire anti-personnel mine, known as a Bouncing Betty, “but it didn’t really do any damage because I had on a flak vest. Thank God the military has those.”

While Schaefer provided covering fire, Alston threw two grenades into the bunker. The second incinerated the bunker, showering Alston with shrapnel, but he and Schaefer got away unharmed, the citation said.

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The next day, Burton was in his tank trying to get across a highway north of Kuwait city that had been blocked by hundreds of bombed-out Iraq-bound vehicles.

“There was no way to go on the road so somebody had to breach a minefield,” he said. “There were minefields all around. . . . They were shooting our way because you could hear the bullets.”

Burton walked through the minefield in pitch darkness and cut two sets of concertina and barbed wire to clear a path that was “extremely critical” to blocking another Iraqi escape route, the citation said.

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