America's North Shore Journal

Silver Star – possible Medal of Honor candidate?

USASOC

Buelow will be presented this award for actions against intense direct small arms and rocket propelled grenade fire in Baghdad, Iraq July 9, 2006 during an attack from numerous insurgents. He led Operational Detachment Alpha 065 and 44 Iraqi Special Operations Forces during a raid that saw one ISOF Soldier critically wounded and more than a dozen insurgents killed. Buelow further showed extraordinary courage and competence while maneuvering his entire convoy through a 360-degree ambush upon leaving the objective.

Colorado Springs Gazette

Fort Carson honored two Green Berets on Wednesday for risking their lives to save comrades in separate Iraq firefights.

The ceremony offered rare insight into battles fought by the post’s secretive 10th Special Forces Group, which recently brought home troops from an Iraq deployment.

The tales of how Chief Warrant Officer Nathan Buelow and former Staff Sgt. Brent Baldwin earned their Silver Star medals also show how soldiers can overcome overwhelming odds with little more than a rifle, wits and bravery.

“When you hear these stories, ask yourself what would have happened if they had not done what they did,” said Lt. Gen. Robert Wagner, the commander of Army Special Operations Command, before pinning the medals on the two men.

“People of lesser character would have stepped back, but they instinctively moved forward,” he told the audience gathered in an airplane hangar.

The Silver Star is the nation’s third-highest award for valor.

Fort Carson’s Green Berets have earned piles of military awards since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, including hundreds of Bronze Star medals. Because of the nature of their work, which involves training Iraqi forces and advising them as they hunt down insurgent leaders, little has been said publicly about the 10th Group’s exploits. [snip]

Buelow also shuns the title.

“I’m no hero,” he said after the ceremony. “There was an opportunity that accorded itself to me, and I did what I was trained to do.”

Buelow was in Baghdad on July 9, 2006, when he was sent to lead a team to oust insurgents from three heavily fortified buildings. Under fire before they got out of their Humvees, Buelow led his troops through the bullets to gain a toehold in one of the buildings.

On the way to the next building, Buelow’s communications sergeant was faced down by a pair of rifle-wielding insurgents. As the enemy took aim, Buelow charged, ignoring enemy bullets as he killed one of them and wounded the other, Army records show.

In the ensuing battle, Buelow frequently exposed himself to enemy fire while commanding his troops to rout the remaining insurgents, the Army said.

But another battle was ahead for Buelow as he led a convoy of troops back to the Special Forces base.

“In what amounted to a 360-degree ambush, the insurgents unleashed an arsenal of munitions with unmatched ferocity, establishing interlocking field of fire,” Army records say. “Maintaining absolute composure, Chief Warrant Officer Buelow maneuvered the entire convoy out of harm’s way then oversaw the evacuation of an Iraqi soldier who had just lost a leg and fingers from a direct rocket propelled grenade hit.”

Buelow, still serving with the 10th Group, said he didn’t do a whole lot of thinking during those hours on the Baghdad battlefield.

“It wasn’t a question of thought,” he explained. “It was a question of action.”