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June 30, 2005
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By Lisa Burgess
Stars and Stripes Mideast edition
ARLINGTON, Va. — The first soldiers to earn the Army's new Combat Action Badge were decorated Wednesday by Army Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Kenneth Preston.
“These soldiers have earned the right to be Americans,” Schoomaker told the crowd assembled to honor the CAB recipients. “They have paid the price. They have walked the walk. They have served the nation. They stand for what the country stands for.”
Schoomaker approved the CAB on May 2 as a way to recognize any active, Reserve or Guard soldier who engages the enemy while serving in a combat zone.
Until the CAB was approved, only infantry, special forces, or medic soldiers had a special badge showing that they had personal combat experience.
The Combat Action Badge, which is open to all soldiers regardless of their military occupational specialty, “will go down in history as a very, very esteemed representation of the warrior ethos,” Schoomaker said.
The first five recipients are:
- Sgt. Michael Buyas, an armor crewman from Orondo, Wash., who was deployed to Iraq with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. He lost his legs Dec. 23, 2004, after an improvised explosive device blew up while his Stryker unit was on a security patrol near Mosul.
- Sgt. Timothy Gustafson, an armor crewman from Leavenworth, Kan. Gustafson was assigned to Camp Caldwell, Iraq, with the 1st Battalion, 278th Regimental Combat Team of the Tennessee National Guard when he was injured during a pipeline security mission in November 2004. An IED blew up near his Humvee, seriously damaging his lower right leg.
- Sgt. Manuel Montano, a military policeman from Westminster, Colo. Montano was deployed to Iraq with the 21st Military Police Company (Airborne) when his convoy was attacked with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades in Baghdad in June 2004. Montano set up a security perimeter and helped provide first aid to injured soldiers.
- Sgt. April Pashley, an Army reservist and civil affairs specialist from Egg Harbor Township, N.J. Pashley was deployed to Iraq with the 404th Civil Affairs Battalion (Special Operations) from Fort Dix, N.J. In 2003, when insurgents attacked the building she was guarding, Pashley fought back, even as 106 mm rockets were landing just 100-150 meters away from her rooftop position.
- Sgt. Sean Steans, a motor transport officer from Bay Minette, Ala. Steans was deployed to Iraq with the 377th Transportation Company, part of the 3rd Corps Support Command, when his resupply convoy was attacked in February 2005 near Humaniyah. Steans was wounded by an IED.
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