War-tested mettle

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 ex- ploits.

Baldwin’s Silver Star came for his actions in April 2004, just three months into his first wartime tour.

Now a Colorado Springs businessman, Baldwin was a weapons expert with a Green Beret unit working with Iraqis in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad.

According to his award citation, Baldwin and his comrades were told 500 insurgents were poised to attack American and Iraqi government facilities in the city.

Baldwin and two members of his team moved to the city’s police station and took up defensive positions on its roof.

Soon, the rooftop hiding place was blanketed by more than a dozen rocket-propelled grenades.

“His hasty defensive position was destroyed by three direct hits,” the Army wrote.

Baldwin dragged a wounded American soldier out of the rubble and “revived him under intense hostile fire,” Army records say.

Then Baldwin, carrying an M-249 light machine gun, took the offensive, killing several insurgents during what the Army called a close, pitched battle. Baldwin then grabbed a rocket launcher and again exposed himself to enemy bullets while taking out a machine gun nest.

The attack on the police station sparked a riot among 350 suddenly free jail inmates housed there.

Baldwin led his soldiers to put down the riot and was grabbed by “a very large inmate,” the Army wrote. The Green Beret wrestled the larger man and subdued him. Army records show that when the inmate was taken down, the other rioters gave up.

Baldwin said he was happy to get the medal. But at the same time, he doesn’t want to be called a hero.

“No one wants to stand out and be recognized like this when we’re still at war,” he said, reserving the hero title for those still in Iraq.

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.”

Baldwin and Buelow were quick to ascribe their success in battle to their training and the men they served alongside.

“If you could be out there with these guys, you would see it every day,” Baldwin said.

Maj. Gen. Thomas Csrnko, who commands all of the Army’s Green Berets, said the soldiers of the 10th Group will be back in Iraq soon.

“They have recently returned from Iraq. They will spend some time at home with their families, and then they will return to battle,” he said. “These are truly great Americans.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0240 or tom.roeder@gazette.com