America's North Shore Journal

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Silver Star – posthumous

Here’s a good candidate for the Medal of Honor.

Fort Wayne.com

Sgt. Joseph E. Proctor didn’t stay hunkered down under cover when mortar shells started falling on the isolated observation post where he was helping train Iraqi soldiers.

Without any orders, the 38-year-old Indiana National Guardsman grabbed his helmet and his rifle and bolted out of the concrete barracks building into the open to provide first aid to wounded soldiers May 3 as small arms fire ratcheted up.

When a dump truck loaded with explosives broke through the east gate and headed for the center of the compound, he faced down the truck and kept shooting until the driver was dead, the bomb detonated, and Proctor was mortally wounded.

Fort Wayne.com

An Indiana National Guardsman who died in a suicide bomb attack just weeks before he was to return home from Iraq will be awarded the Silver Star.

Gov. Mitch Daniels and Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger, adjutant general of the Indiana National Guard, will present the medal to the family of Sgt. Joseph E. Proctor on Wednesday at the Statehouse.

Proctor, 38, who lived in Indianapolis and grew up in the Johnson County town of Whiteland, was assigned to the National Guard’s 638th Aviation Battalion. He is the first Indiana National Guardsman to be awarded the Silver Star – the Army’s third-highest honor for bravery – since October 1969, Guard officials said.

Proctor was killed May 3 during an attack on a U.S. coalition compound in Tammin, near Ramadi, when he left cover to provide first aid to wounded soldiers and then faced down a dump truck loaded with explosives, the Guard said.

“Proctor immediately and aggressively stood his ground, engaging the vehicle with unwavering courage, fatally wounding the driver of the vehicle,” Guard officials said. “Due to Proctor’s courage, the vehicle did not penetrate the internal perimeter of the compound. He saved the lives of many coalition forces by his actions.”

Proctor’s family was presented with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star during a memorial service in May.

He had been a National Guard member during the 1980s and later went into the Army on active duty, serving during the 1991 Gulf War. After 10 years out of the military, he re-enlisted in the Guard in 2002, prompted by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

I cannot find any mention of this that is not a repeat of the AP story in the first quote. No media coverage other than the reprinting of the AP story and the additional story by one paper in the second quote. Nothing on the Department of Defense website. This sucks!