For his actions under fire from an ambush that seriously wounded the OIC--Marine Sgt. Jeff Hunter received the Silver Star
“I honestly don’t believe I did anything all that heroic,” Sgt. Jeff Hunter told Military.com when asked about his Silver Star. That’s a common refrain among American warriors serving in combat zones, but for those who served with Hunter during two intense fights, it’s a dramatic understatement.
Albuquerque, NM
Silver Star recipient
In the early hours of May 25, then-Cpl. Hunter set out on foot with Lima Company toward Haditha's market district in the opening days of Operation New Market.
According to Hunter, the company planned to arrive at the market by sunrise in order to catch insurgents by surprise. He said the trip seemed like any other, until a Marine shot a stray dog that had charged him. About ten seconds later, "all hell broke loose," Hunter said.
The award citation released by the Corps and interviews with Hunter and his fellow Marines reveal the platoon was ambushed by small arms fire that seriously wounded an officer on the patrol. Sgt. David Wimberg, Hunter's squad leader, ordered the squad to take a house to their left, where they were receiving fire.
Wimberg hopped the fence and opened the gate for Hunter's fire team, then kicked in the door and ran inside with Hunter on his heels.
"Sgt. Wimberg barely took a second step into the room before a muzzle to an AK-47 was presented [at his chest] and fired several times," Hunter said in a recap of the events he wrote after the firefight.
When Wimberg fell to the ground, "I instinctively reached down and grabbed him, pulling him back out of the house," Hunter wrote. "I dragged him to the right of the door under a window and lay on top of him while I heard him wheeze for us to frag the room."
Hunter called for two of his squad mates to take Wimberg to their corpsman while he pushed forward with the attack on the house.
"In the back of my mind, I knew that I was now in charge of the squad and I had to get control of the situation," he wrote.
"Acting as squad leader, [Hunter] reorganized his Marines and led them into the insurgent position…ultimately securing the house with close-range small arms fire and hand grenades," according to the Corps release. Wimberg later died as a result of his wounds, but Hunter's actions during the firefight "enabled his company to regain its momentum," the release said.
Two months later, Hunter found himself in another fierce gunfight, a battle that lasted for four hours and meandered through the streets of Cykla, a village near Haditha. After enemy fire from a hostile house hit a Marine, Hunter’s platoon engaged the enemies, forcing them to flee to a second home. By the time his squad cleared the second house, the insurgents had already left. Two of the Marines approached a couple of nearby cinder block buildings, and one of them was suddenly hit by insurgents firing from a fortified position. Hiding behind a three-foot-high wall, Hunter returned fire and shot two insurgents. He also made two attempts to extract the wounded Marine. The shooting was too intense, so Hunter ran through the line of fire and across the street to an M1A1 tank – which he guided to strike the enemies’ position. The tank eliminated the threat and allowed the platoon to retrieve its mortally wounded comrade.
For his actions, Sgt. Hunter received the Silver Star last June at his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Hunter is currently completing his education at the University of New Mexico.
