“Mission Accomplished” — the banner behind President George W. Bush while aboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln — grandly declared that invasion of Iraq, launched just 26 days prior, on March 20, 2003, was over.
The invasion consisting of the armed forces of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Poland, had overrun the country in a little over three weeks and would soon climax with the overthrow of the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein. As of that moment, President Bush had achieved a stunning victory, more so even than that of his father in 1990-1991.
Few would have conceived that this seeming end to what President Bush called the “Axis of Evil” was, in fact, only beginning. Some clue, however, might have been derived from the act of self-sacrifice late in the campaign that produced its sole Medal of Honor recipient, Paul Ray Smith.
Born in El Paso, Texas, on June 24, 1969, Paul Ray Smith was nine when his parents, Ivan Smith and Janice Pvirre, moved to Tampa Bay, Florida. There, Smith took a shine to carpentry, even serving as a carpenter’s assistant, and automobiles, rebuilding a friend’s dune buggy. In 1988 he graduated from the Tampa Bay Vocational Technical School, then enlisted in the United States Army in October 1989.
As early as then, Smith told his family he had settled on his life’s ambition: “I want to be a soldier, get married and have kids.”
After training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, in 1996 Smith was assigned to the 9th Engineer Battalion in Germany, where he met his wife, Birgit and went on to have a son and a daughter.
He then transferred to Company B, 11th Engineer Battalion to participate in Operation Joint Endeavor, upholding stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1996, and the similar Operation Joint Guardian, patrolling the streets of Gnjilane, Kosovo, from 1999 to May 2001.
In the spring of 2002, he attained the rank to Sergeant First Class and in August he completed the Advanced Non-Commissioned Officer Course.
In January 2003 Smith’s combat engineer unit moved to Kuwait, where it was attached to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division. There he trained his troops intensely in preparation for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Once launched, Operation Iraqi Freedom’s progress was marked by inconsistency on the enemy’s part. Some Iraqis fought ferociously; others crumbled under the weight of corrupt leadership, faulty training and unreliable weaponry. The Americans could not be sure of what they were up against until first contact.
As of April 3, B Company, 2nd Battalion had advanced roughly 185 miles in 48 hours with the 3rd Infantry Division. On April 4, it was part of a 100-man blocking force taking up positions on the highway a little over a mile east of Baghdad International Airport.
There, the Americans had constructed an impromptu aid station in a walled enclosure and a tower for about 100 casualties. Smith, leading a 16-man detail and with combat earth mover, was constructing an EPW (enemy prisoner of war) holding area when some of his men reported 50 to 100 Iraqis had occupied the tower — commandeering the courtyard and by all appearances, determined to make a fight of it.
Besides his two platoons, Smith was backed up by a Bradley fighting vehicle and three M113 armored personnel carriers. Hastily organizing a defense, he moved up under fire to personally engage the enemy. Nearby, the Bradley was damaged and as its ammunition ran low, it withdrew to replenish. One of the APCs was disabled by a rocket-propelled grenade and a 60mm mortar round. Smith rushed over to evacuate its three wounded crewmen.
Judging it possible that the enemy might overrun the aid station and that the wounded troops were in jeopardy, Smith then returned to the M113 and, disregarding his own safety under withering fire, he manned its exposed .50-caliber machine gun. Nearby a fellow SFC Timothy S. Campbell, led a team into the tower and killed all the Iraqi combatants they found there.
The fight ended with as many as 50 Iraqis dead. SFC Smith was found where he fell, with 13 holes in his armor jacket and bullets in his neck and brain. After the American advance resumed, Baghdad fell on April 9, followed by Kirkuk on the 10th and Tikrit on the 15th. On May 1, the President announced the “end of major combat operations.”
For his role in defending the wounded, Campbell was awarded the Silver Star. After being honored by his comrades and shipped home, Smith received the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Army Commendation Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters. In accordance with his expressed wishes — he loved to fish — his remains were cremated and scattered in the Gulf of Mexico. He also has a marker in Arlington National Cemetery.
On April 4, 2005, two years after his death, Smith’s 11-year-old son, David, came to Washington, D.C. and received the Medal of Honor from President Bush. Smith had done all he could to accomplish his mission, but affairs in Iraq were not quite over. The years from 2004 to 2007 would see six more American servicemen receive the Medal of Honor — five of them posthumously.
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