America's North Shore Journal

Dur­ing an award cer­e­mony at Camp Court­ney Dec. 4, 1^st Lt. Colin P. Boyn­ton, right, with 3^rd Marine Divi­sion, III Marine Expe­di­tionary Force, accepts his award cita­tion for a Bronze Star Medal with com­bat device from Lt. Col. Ted A. Adams, com­mand­ing offi­cer of 9^th Engi­neer Sup­port Bat­tal­ion, 3^rd Marine Logis­tic Group, III MEF. Photo by Lance Cpl. Den­grier Baez

Instead of Christ­mas car­ols last Christ­mas Eve, 1^st Lt. Colin P. Boyn­ton heard the crack of bullets.

Boyn­ton and two other Marines, part of an embed­ded train­ing team, were with 30 Afghan troops return­ing from Mird­esh in Nurestan province, Afghanistan, to their com­mand post after meet­ing with Mird­esh elders, when the shots rang out.

The area had not been patrolled for 10 months prior and was known to be dan­ger­ous since it pro­vided a safe haven for enemy fight­ers, said Boyn­ton, now with 3^rd Marine Divi­sion, III Marine Expe­di­tionary Force.

On Dec. 24, 2008, Boyn­ton was a train­ing team leader embed­ded with 1^st Infantry Com­pany, 2^nd Kan­dak, 2^nd Brigade, 201^st Corps, Afghan national army.

As his team walked along a ravine near a river, about a mile from post, Boyn­ton and 13 oth­ers were sep­a­rated from the patrol, he said.

Boyn­ton had been involved in fire­fights with the enemy before but never on a patrol, he said.

"We did all the pre­plan­ning, but the enemy knew we couldn't fire into the vil­lage, and they were very patient, attack­ing us at a weak moment," Boyn­ton said. "They waited where most of the patrol had turned on a bend in the trail. We were stuck in a kill zone."

One Afghan sol­dier was shot through the knee and within min­utes three oth­ers were hit with enemy fire from the vil­lage bound­aries about 250 yards in the dis­tance, Boyn­ton said.

"We were able to sup­press the fire and get the casu­al­ties out and into safety," Boyn­ton said of the Afghan sol­diers caught in the kill zone. Boyn­ton coor­di­nated fire sup­port with coali­tion heli­copters and the casu­al­ties were evac­u­ated, all sur­vived the fire­fight, he said.

"I was hon­ored to have embed­ded with peo­ple from a dif­fer­ent cul­ture and reli­gion" Boyn­ton said. "We were brought together for the same cause."

Boyn­ton received a Bronze Star with com­bat device in a cer­e­mony in front of 3^rd MarDiv's head­quar­ters at Camp Court­ney Dec. 4 for his actions Dec. 24, 2008, and through­out his deploy­ment in Afghanistan, Nov. 27 to Aug. 22, 2008.

"I'm hon­ored, and it's extremely hum­bling to receive this award being a young offi­cer doing what I was trained for and look­ing out for my troops," he said.

Dur­ing the deploy­ment, he led more than 27 mounted patrols and con­ducted more than 30 con­voy oper­a­tions. He also directed direct and indi­rect fire dur­ing eight enemy engage­ments, accord­ing to his Bronze Star citation.

"You can't ask for a higher cal­iber Marine," said Lt. Col. Ted A. Adams, com­mand­ing offi­cer of 9^th Engi­neer Sup­port Bat­tal­ion, 3^rd Marine Logis­tic Group, III MEF, dur­ing the award ceremony.

DVIDS
Story by Lance Cpl. Den­grier Baez