Pvt. Dwayne Turner of the 101st Airborne Division was awarded the Silver Star yesterday.
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Pvt. Dwayne Turner was inside his Humvee in Iraq when the grenade hit, the shrapnel eating into both his legs. He stood up bleeding. In the haze of battle, Turner, a combat medic, still managed to treat 16 comrades while gunfire kept coming.Turner, 23, of Indianapolis, only quit when a fellow soldier saw him losing blood, pushed him against a wall and administered morphine. By then, Turner also had been shot in the leg and arm.
At least two of the soldiers he treated would have died without medical care. Turner said that he doesn't consider himself a hero, "I just figured everybody was going to come home and nobody was going to die on my watch."
He sounds like a hero to me.
Posted by marybeth at February 6, 2004 07:32 PM IraqI am the aunt of PVT Dwayne Turner. Words cannot express the pride of being related to this young man. The thing that makes the most happy is that he lived to tell about it and will be able to live a pretty normal life.
I love you Tony,
Aunt Janice
I can understand why you would be proud of him. A young man with a sense of duty, concern for his fellow soldiers, strength, and determination such as he showed is an inspiration to the rest of us.
I hope he recovers from his wounds and has a normal life healthwise but from what I know of him through that article, I expect that someone with his character will continue to be above average in anything he persues.
I shared the news article with my sons (15 and 10). Their response was "That's cool." Translated from teen-speak I think that means, "You're right mom, he is a hero."
Posted by marybeth at February 10, 2004 06:05 PM