Sergeant Gary Mills was on fire.
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He was trapped inside a burning vehicle, with hands burned so badly that he couldn’t open the door. Surely he and his fellow soldiers would die there.
But then the door opened, and a hand reached in and pulled Mills to safety. That hand belonged to Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe.
Now Brig. Gen. Gary Brito is fighting to see that Cashe is awarded the Medal of Honor.
In 2005, Cashe was there when a roadside bomb ruptured the Army vehicle’s fuel tank. Six soldiers were trapped inside as the vehicle burned, one of them Sgt. Mills. Cashe’s uniform was soaked in fuel, and there was enemy small arms fire to contend with. But Cashe went into the flames anyway, over and over again, even as his own uniform caught fire and he suffered second- and third-degree burns.
Eventually all six soldiers had been freed. Cashe then refused to be loaded onto the medevac helicopter until he knew that the other wounded men had been flown out.
Four of those six men later died of their wounds. Cashe’s wounds were treated at a Texas military hospital with his sister, Kasinal Cashe White, by his side. A nurse said to her, “You know your brother’s a hero, don’t you?”
Cashe’s first words when he woke up were: “How are my boys doing?” He then began weeping, lamenting that he didn’t get to them fast enough.
Cashe died on November 8, 2005. He left behind a wife and three children.
Cashe was originally awarded the Silver Star, the military’s third-highest award for valor, after Brito nominated him. Now, led by Gen. Brito, a movement is growing to see Cashe awarded the Medal of Honor. Harry Conner, a former drill sergeant who runs a Facebook page in support of Cashe, says, “This man allowed himself to burn to death to save his men. To not award him the Medal of Honor would be a terrible injustice.”
Cashe’s division commander, Lt. Gen. William G. Webster, also wrote a statement in support of Cashe, saying he “cannot remember a story that is its equal.”
Brito now wishes he had nominated Cashe for the Medal of Honor from the beginning, but he was focused on keeping the families informed and getting his other soldiers home safely.
If Cashe is awarded the Medal of Honor, he will be the first African-American soldier to receive it in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. His family refuses to play what they call “the race card” though, saying that he isn’t just a black soldier who earned the right to a Medal of Honor. “He’s a soldier who happens to be black,” his sister said.
They are hoping that he will received the award while his mother, 89, is still alive.
It has been a seven year journey to see Cashe receive the honor he deserves. Gen. Brito has spent those years locating soldiers and getting sworn statements. The process has taught him that the Medal of Honor should be reserved for rare examples of extraordinary courage.
But for Cashe, Brito says, “the criteria of bravery and gallantry under horrible conditions has been met.”