David Bellavia

"Its important to have different perspectives, and journalism supports that. Today, everyone has an opinion about everything. COVID-19 happens, and suddenly were all research specialists posting our findings on Facebook or wherever. What we dont do is properly consider the sources of our material, our "facts." Everyone responds emotionally to everything. We paint millennials in a bad light: the iGeneration is awful; but the truth is that my parents generation thought the same things about us. We were couch potatoes; we lived in our parents basements until we were twenty-five. Then the Twin Towers fell. Every generation is going to be tested. And some people are going to answer the call. Fortunately, I believe that many liberals shoot as straight as conservatives. I served with a lot of guys who hated George W. Bush and his reasons for taking us to war. Now they didnt vote for President Trump. But under fire, they saved my life and they made sure I came home. Those guys are my family. I love them to death. We argue about politics every single day, but we also see beyond that."

"Close behind Cantrell comes Staff Sergeant Jim, driving that glorious Abrams. First Platoon has no doubt benefited from their service. That battles under control. Now theyve come to bail us out."

"I found that in the worst part of humanity, theres like this... its just like Gods grace just shows up. You actually feel the presence of God in the worst situation possible. And not just Americans, but the enemy. The enemy is doing beautiful things for each other because theyre in it together. It doesnt make me want to stop shooting, but it makes me respect the hell out of them, and it changes my life forever, too. Because were not fighting storm troopers, and were not fighting a bunch of yahoos. Were fighting people that are into their cause, believe in their cause, and will die for their cause."

"I never really thought about legacy when I was in a fight. A legacy is what old men think about when theyre dying. But now I realize how important that legacy is."

"My greatest regret has always been leaving the service I so dearly loved. I tried to make it work at home, but but the pull of the battlefield was too strong. Out there, I had meaning and purpose. You live on the raged edge of danger that forces you to confront your own mortality. Every breath becomes euphoric. You exist in a different emotional framework. In rural western New York, lifes color was drained away by a million little nicks. You stress over bills and taxes, a car thats become unreliable. The house needs siding, the floors in the kitchen need to be redone. All the logistical headaches of modern life take center stage and start to define your life. Out there, on the battlefield, none of that shit matters. None of it. The complexities vanish, and everything boils down to this: can you measure up? When you do, you feel like a rock star. Nothing- no drug in the world- can compare to that moment of self-discovery. For me, self-discovery in combat convinced me the essence of life distills down to one thing: proving to yourself why you are needed in the fight."

"Today is my birthday. Im twenty-nine. Its November 10, 2004. Im a staff sergeant with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, stationed in Fallujah, Iraq. Im near the end of a thirty-six-month "all others" tour away from my family, currently deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Fallujah had been abandoned for six months when we arrived in the late fall of 2004. During that time, four thousand to six thousand enemy insurgents have entrenched, preparing their defenses for our arrival. Bodies are all over the street, festering bacteria. Within a matter of days of our arrival, weve all suffered strep throat, fevers, and diarrhea. Its horrible. We engage in close-quarters combat, within a deadly two-foot radius. The enemy is a mix of highly skilled professionals and amateurs who fight with passion. We never know what were going to encounter. Im not bothered by fear. Im fueled by it."

"They name me the first living recipient to earn the Medal of Honor for bravery in the Iraq War. A coworker of mine reads about the award. "Hey, some guy with your name is getting the Medal of Honor. Isnt that weird? How many David Bellavias are out there?" "I know, right? Its so weird," I say. Its surreal and unnatural to get credit when youve lived your entire life to be about the team. Its never about the individual. Im not here to celebrate me. I decide to be the first guy to bring his entire unit to the ceremony. If Im going to go through with this, Im going to go with the guys that I did it with fifteen years ago. So I get the whole crew in. I bring thirty-two service members to the ceremony in the East Room at the White House in June 2019, including the twelve who were there with me on that night in 2004, plus five Gold Star families, the interpreter, and Mick Ware."

"Into the Hot Zone," the article Mick Ware writes about that night, is Time magazines cover story less than two weeks later. I earn a Silver Star. But all I hear for ten years is, "Bullshit. I dont believe it. That didnt happen." Then I get a call from the military paper Stars and Stripes. "Hey, youre nominated for the Medal of Honor, did you know that? I hear theres a videotape. Do you have a comment? Im immediately on the defensive. No one whos served in Iraq has received the US Armed Forces highest military decoration, except posthumously. "Whats on the tape? How did you find out?" The Armys trying to tell me that Im getting the Medal of Honor, and Im acting like theyre trying to put me in jail. Turns out Ware sold a documentary to HBO. He filmed the entire firefight. Honestly, Wares anti-war and pro-freedom for the press to tell the truth, but hes got the biggest balls of anyone Ive ever met in my life. He was right there the whole time. Because of Michael Ware, everything is corroborated. He was recording the fight the entire time."

"A native of Buffalo, New York, David grew up the youngest of four sons. His maternal grandfather, Joseph Brunacini, had a great influence on him. Grandpa Joe served in the army during the Normandy campaign and was awarded a Bronze Star... Following his graduation from the University of Buffalo, David enlisted in the Army in 1999. Originally assigned to a recruiting battalion so his infant son could receive medical care, David eventually became an infantryman. He served in Kosovo and Operations Iraqi Freedom I and II. David left the Army in 2005 and co-founded Vets for Freedom, an advocacy group for combat veterans and their battlefield mission. He also worked as an embedded reporter in Iraq before returning to the United States, and lives in New York State with his wife and three children."

"A block away, machine guns echo through the night. AK-47s bark. M4s beat a response. The firefight grows."

"The gunman on the roof was a teenaged boy, maybe sixteen years old. I could see him scanning for targets, his back to me. He held an AK-47 without a stock. Was he just a stupid kid trying to protect his family? Was he one of Muqtada al-Sadrs Shiite fanatics? I kept my eyes on him and prayed hed put the AK down and just get back inside his own house. I didnt want to shoot him. He turned and saw me, and I could see the terror on his sweat-streaked face. I put him in my sights just as he adjusted the AK against his shoulder. I had beaten him on the draw. My own rifle was snug on my shoulder, the sight resting on him. The kid stood no chance. My weapon just needed a flick of the safety and a butterflys kiss of pressure on the trigger. Please dont do this. You dont need to die. The AK went to full ready-up. Was he aiming at me? I couldnt be sure, but the barrel was trained at my level. Do I shoot? Do I risk not shooting? Was he silently trying to save me from some unseen threat? I didnt know. I had to make a decision. Please forgive me for this. I pulled my trigger. The kids chin fell to his chest, and a guttural moan escaped his lips. I fired again, missed, then pulled the trigger one more time. The bullet tore his jaw and ear off. Sergeant Hall came up alongside me, saw the AK and the boy, and finished him with four shots to his chest. He slumped against the low rooftop wall. "Thanks, dude. I lost my zero," I said to Hall, explaining that my rifle sights were off-line, though that was the last thing going through my mind."

"We have business on the battlefield, but when thats over, you look back and say, "I hope every person in our country can see a stranger as important as themselves." If youre willing to do things for them, I just think thats the meaning of life. Im not going to get thanked, youre not going to know my name, youre not going to pay me, and I will still do it. The closest thing Ive ever seen to God is when you see people sacrifice knowingly without any concern for themselves."