Soldiers Medal 1997

This is not my story. It is Levi Moffitt’s story when he was in Brcko Bosnia with 1st Infantry 2/2. Let me start towards the beginning. All thru high school Levi wanted to join a branch of the military. His mother and I convinced him to try a year of college. Four years later he graduated college with a major in Criminal Justice and a minor in Sociology. A month later he walked into our home and announced that he had enlisted in the Army. While in basic training it was impressed upon him to attend officers candidate school. He refused saying his 3 year enlistment paid his college loans and officer candidate school meant he had to pay the loans on his own. He was informed he was very stubborn and he replied it was a family trait. He was assigned to Bradley and was a driver and shipped to Germany. Then his unit was shipped to Brcko Bosnia where he was a gunner on a Bradley. His unit was advised they were being sent to the police station for a change of political power. Levi’s unit and a unit of MP’s were present waiting when a siren was blown. The MP’s immediately left. There had been rumors of a planned riot that the MP’s knew about, but the infantry didn’t know of the possibility of a riot. Immediately there were about 3000 Serbians around the soldiers. The rioters were organized with women and children being in the first two rows. The rioters tried to grab the soldiers and take their weapons from them. The soldiers were hit with rocks, bricks and bottles and some of the rioters tried to strike the soldiers with boards with embedded nails. The soldiers were back to back with each other and fighting for survival, without shooting the paid civilian rioters. In the midst of the fight gunshots were heard. It became apparent that one of the MP Humvee had not left and the shots were coming from within the unit. The rioters had surrounded the Humvee and had thrown a log into the turret. They were attempting to roll the Humvee. The infantry was told to stand fast and not go tot he aide of the US MP’s in the Humvee. Levi could not stand the thought of watching Americans being harmed. He fought his way thru the crowd, jumped up on the Humvee and removed the log. He remained on the top of the Humvee and directed the MPs in the vehicle out of the crowd and back to US troops. He did not rem,ain with the MP’s and return to safety, but returned to the battle with the rioters. The fight lasted about 2.5 hours. At the end of the riot the infantry soldiers were awarded Commendation medals and several were awarded purple hearts. General Grange requested Levi be awarded a Soldiers Medal and the Secretary of Defense flew to Brcko and presented him with the medal. There was going to be a media push, but Princess Dianna was killed in a car wreck. The moral of the story is simple. Levi did not have special training in handling riots. His never quit attitude saved the lives of other soldiers. In followup Levi left the Army and joined a police department. His never quit attitude is still serving him well. On of his on the job injuries took him about 6 months to recover from before he could return to work. You guys are doing great thing. Never quit

Author: Roy