Airman receives Purple Heart

Tue., June 8, 2004

By Kevin Graman kevingr@spokesman.com

In a first for Fairchild Air Force Base since its involvement in the global war on terrorism, an airman who was injured by Iraqi insurgents while he was destroying a large cache of enemy ordnance was presented with the Purple Heart on Monday.

Airman 1st Class Brandon “Newt” Guingrich was presented with the medal by visiting Brig. Gen. Del Eulberg of Headquarters, Air Mobility Command, during a ceremony attended by members of the 92nd Civil Engineers Squadron.

“It all boils down to young men and women who decide to go into harm’s way,” Eul-berg said Monday in praising the courage of U.S. forces in Iraq. These soldiers aspire to the ideals envisioned by the nation’s first commander in chief, George Washington, who established the Purple Heart for injuries received in combat. “…Ideals imbedded in the hearts of people like Airman Guingrich,” Eulberg said.

As a member of the 92nd Civil Engineers Squadron, Guingrich, 22, of Portland, Ind., was attached to an explosive ordinance disposal unit at Balad Air Base northeast of Baghdad, according to a statement read at Monday’s ceremony. On Dec. 30 last year, the airman was part of a team sent to destroy an unusually large cache of Iraqi ordnance at a forward operating base. Such ordnance typically includes ammunition, mortars or rocket-propelled grenades.

Once the ordnance had been exploded safely, two members of the team went into the blast pit to ensure that everything had been destroyed while Guingrich and three others moved to the top of a nearby berm to provide cover. While Guingrich was on top of the berm, the enemy remotely detonated an “improvised explosive device” buried 30 feet away from him. Guingrich was thrown 20 feet off the berm and suffered temporary hearing loss and damage to his right eye. He was the only person injured in the blast.

“It was quick, and I didn’t have time to realize what happened,” Guingrich said Monday, adding that at first he believed his team had come under mortar fire. Fortunately, shrapnel from the explosion was absorbed into the berm, he said.

The ordnance disposal team reassembled and traveled safely back to the forward operating base.

“It took a few weeks for my eye to heal,” Guingrich said.

Monday’s ceremony marked the first time a Purple Heart has been awarded to Fairchild personnel during the war, said 1st Lt. Matt Hasson, public affairs officer at the base. Col. Anthony M. Mauer, commander of the 92nd Air Refueling Wing, also was in attendance.

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