bobdina
08-23-2010, 11:24 AM
Buddies among 7 who earn Silver Star
Special Forces Staff Sgts. Mario Pinilla, Dan Gould had each other’s backs during fierce August 2008 firefight in Faramuz, Afghanistan
By Joe Gould - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Aug 23, 2010 5:05:11 EDT
Staff Sgt. Mario Pinilla risked his life in combat to save Staff Sgt. Dan Gould’s neck. Minutes later, Gould returned the favor.
Both men were among seven soldiers from the 7th Special Forces Group who received Silver Stars on Aug. 16 for their actions in five separate incidents in Afghanistan dating back to 2007.
On Aug. 20, 2008, Pinilla rushed to Gould, who was pinned down in a fierce firefight with Afghan militants. When a bullet hit Pinilla’s spine, Gould picked up Pinilla’s weapon, fired back and carried Pinilla to safety.
Two years after the intense firefight, the two friends laughed and joked about those events in an interview with Army Times. When asked about being heroes, however, they both fell silent for a moment.
“I don’t like interviews to be honest, I don’t like ceremonies, I don’t like to be out there — people telling me congratulations for something I would have done anyway,” said Pinilla, whose injury still affects his ability to walk. “If I had to do it all over again, I would.”
Gould, 27, of South Jordan, Utah, and Pinilla, 30, of Bogota, Colombia, joined their detachment at about the same time in 2006, and their warm friendship grew through schools and three deployments, one to Colombia and two to Afghanistan.
Detachment Alpha 7134, Special Operations Task Force-71, was on patrol in Faramuz village in the southern Oruzgan province, looking for militants who had been harassing Hazara villagers under the unit’s protection. Gould, who was the engineer sergeant, and several Afghan troops were on foot at the south side of their convoy when they happened on a group of militants.
“I think they were just as surprised to see me as I was of them because they usually have the advantage of shooting at us from the mountains,” Gould said.
In the ensuing firefight, Gould’s helmet was shot off his head and another bullet hit an armor plate at his side.
“To get shot twice and not be hurt physically, I was using up a lot of my lives that day,” Gould said.
Meanwhile, Pinilla, who was the communications sergeant, was in a vehicle 75 yards away, and he learned from his gunner that Gould was taking fire.
“Aw, heck no,” Pinilla recalled saying — sort of a unit in-joke. Pinilla grabbed a M249 Squad Automatic Weapon and ran across open ground and into the line of enemy fire to reach Gould.
The enemy fire was kicking up clouds of dust from which Pinilla seemed to emerge dramatically, Gould said.
“That totally turned the tables. He came running out, gunning, and they totally had to take some cover, which gave me a second to breathe,” Gould said.
Pinilla was reaching for a grenade when a bullet pierced his left side at the waist and hit his spine. He lost feeling in his legs, crumpled to the ground and began gushing blood.
With bullets hitting the ground around them, Gould continued firing with Pinilla’s SAW. Pinilla alternately tried to crawl for cover and fire his Beretta M9 at the militants until he emptied three 15-round clips.
By the time the team medic and team sergeant reached the pair, soldiers in the convoy vehicles were able to lay down suppressive fire. The enemy fire died down, and the group decided it was time to go.
Gould slung Pinilla over his shoulder, but Pinilla’s painful back injury meant he had to stay straight. While considered heroic now, the whole enterprise looked incredibly awkward, Gould said.
“I took off as fast as I could, and slowly went to jog, the jog went to a speed walk and the speed walk went to a crawl,” Gould said. “The crawl turned into, ‘Someone please come get this guy.’ ”
Evacuated eventually to Germany and then to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Pinilla spent 10 months learning to walk again. He progressed from a wheelchair to a walker and a cane, and he now wears a brace on his left foot, which has some nerve damage.
When Pinilla returned to his unit in January 2009, he had let his hair grow for 10 months as a joke.
“I waited for these guys to get back, and when they looked at me — I pretty much spent three weeks going to work with my hair like that until finally [a superior] goes like, ‘Hey man, you really need to get a hair cut,’ ” Pinilla said with a laugh. “I was just trying to see who would be the first guy to say something.”
Pinilla’s recovery is not complete, but he has a positive outlook and friends like Gould in his corner.
“I consider Mario probably one of my best friends in my entire life, honestly,” Gould said. “You have friends you grew up with, but you never have friends like you do in the military that have actually been there with you, especially after a guy comes to save your life, you know.”
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/08/army-7-special-forces-receive-silver-star-082210w/
Special Forces Staff Sgts. Mario Pinilla, Dan Gould had each other’s backs during fierce August 2008 firefight in Faramuz, Afghanistan
By Joe Gould - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Aug 23, 2010 5:05:11 EDT
Staff Sgt. Mario Pinilla risked his life in combat to save Staff Sgt. Dan Gould’s neck. Minutes later, Gould returned the favor.
Both men were among seven soldiers from the 7th Special Forces Group who received Silver Stars on Aug. 16 for their actions in five separate incidents in Afghanistan dating back to 2007.
On Aug. 20, 2008, Pinilla rushed to Gould, who was pinned down in a fierce firefight with Afghan militants. When a bullet hit Pinilla’s spine, Gould picked up Pinilla’s weapon, fired back and carried Pinilla to safety.
Two years after the intense firefight, the two friends laughed and joked about those events in an interview with Army Times. When asked about being heroes, however, they both fell silent for a moment.
“I don’t like interviews to be honest, I don’t like ceremonies, I don’t like to be out there — people telling me congratulations for something I would have done anyway,” said Pinilla, whose injury still affects his ability to walk. “If I had to do it all over again, I would.”
Gould, 27, of South Jordan, Utah, and Pinilla, 30, of Bogota, Colombia, joined their detachment at about the same time in 2006, and their warm friendship grew through schools and three deployments, one to Colombia and two to Afghanistan.
Detachment Alpha 7134, Special Operations Task Force-71, was on patrol in Faramuz village in the southern Oruzgan province, looking for militants who had been harassing Hazara villagers under the unit’s protection. Gould, who was the engineer sergeant, and several Afghan troops were on foot at the south side of their convoy when they happened on a group of militants.
“I think they were just as surprised to see me as I was of them because they usually have the advantage of shooting at us from the mountains,” Gould said.
In the ensuing firefight, Gould’s helmet was shot off his head and another bullet hit an armor plate at his side.
“To get shot twice and not be hurt physically, I was using up a lot of my lives that day,” Gould said.
Meanwhile, Pinilla, who was the communications sergeant, was in a vehicle 75 yards away, and he learned from his gunner that Gould was taking fire.
“Aw, heck no,” Pinilla recalled saying — sort of a unit in-joke. Pinilla grabbed a M249 Squad Automatic Weapon and ran across open ground and into the line of enemy fire to reach Gould.
The enemy fire was kicking up clouds of dust from which Pinilla seemed to emerge dramatically, Gould said.
“That totally turned the tables. He came running out, gunning, and they totally had to take some cover, which gave me a second to breathe,” Gould said.
Pinilla was reaching for a grenade when a bullet pierced his left side at the waist and hit his spine. He lost feeling in his legs, crumpled to the ground and began gushing blood.
With bullets hitting the ground around them, Gould continued firing with Pinilla’s SAW. Pinilla alternately tried to crawl for cover and fire his Beretta M9 at the militants until he emptied three 15-round clips.
By the time the team medic and team sergeant reached the pair, soldiers in the convoy vehicles were able to lay down suppressive fire. The enemy fire died down, and the group decided it was time to go.
Gould slung Pinilla over his shoulder, but Pinilla’s painful back injury meant he had to stay straight. While considered heroic now, the whole enterprise looked incredibly awkward, Gould said.
“I took off as fast as I could, and slowly went to jog, the jog went to a speed walk and the speed walk went to a crawl,” Gould said. “The crawl turned into, ‘Someone please come get this guy.’ ”
Evacuated eventually to Germany and then to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Pinilla spent 10 months learning to walk again. He progressed from a wheelchair to a walker and a cane, and he now wears a brace on his left foot, which has some nerve damage.
When Pinilla returned to his unit in January 2009, he had let his hair grow for 10 months as a joke.
“I waited for these guys to get back, and when they looked at me — I pretty much spent three weeks going to work with my hair like that until finally [a superior] goes like, ‘Hey man, you really need to get a hair cut,’ ” Pinilla said with a laugh. “I was just trying to see who would be the first guy to say something.”
Pinilla’s recovery is not complete, but he has a positive outlook and friends like Gould in his corner.
“I consider Mario probably one of my best friends in my entire life, honestly,” Gould said. “You have friends you grew up with, but you never have friends like you do in the military that have actually been there with you, especially after a guy comes to save your life, you know.”
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/08/army-7-special-forces-receive-silver-star-082210w/