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EOD Marines Awarded For Valor
(June 2, 2011) | 
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MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (May 26, 2011) –
After recently returning from a deployment to Afghanistan,
five Marines with 1st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company,
7th Engineer Support Battalion, Combat Logistics Regiment 1,
1st Marine Logistics Group, received awards for valor here,
May, 18. Gunnery Sgt. Benjamin Lepping, Gunnery Sgt. Travis
Bouten and Staff Sgt. Matthew Jackson were awarded Bronze
Star Medals with combat distinguishing device.
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Gunnery Sgt. Benjamin Lepping |
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 According
to the citation, on Aug. 31, 2010, Lepping, serving
as the explosive ordnance assistant team leader with
1st EOD Co., 1st MLG (Forward), encountered a
trip-wire improvised explosive device. With complete
disregard for his own safety, Lepping disarmed the
device using hands-on procedures under the cover of
darkness.
“I had to do what I had to do,”
said Lepping, EOD team leader, 1st EOD Co., 7th ESB,
CLR-1, 1st MLG, 30, from Louisville, Ky. “Even if it
meant putting my life in danger to save the other
Marines.”
Bouten, 28, from Spokane, Wash.,
who at the time was a staff sergeant serving with
3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, Regimental Combat Team
2, 1st Marine Division (Forward), as an EOD team
leader, was providing EOD support, July 17, 2010, to
a company of engineers who were building a road in a
heavily-vegetated area. While attempting to resupply
the engineers, a vehicle struck a roadside bomb less
than 50 meters away from him. He began sweeping for
secondary explosives around the downed vehicle when
an IED detonated less than 30 meters from his
position, also injuring a Marine. He and his sweep
team began searching for additional IEDs and quickly
spotted a second pull string aimed at a squad of
Marines.
Without regard for his own safety,
he dropped an explosive charge to detonate the IED
before the enemy could initiate it. Within minutes,
he spotted a third pull string IED aimed at his
sweep team. The string to this explosive was
actively being pulled when Bouten quickly grabbed
and cut the string with his knife.
“I just
reacted to the situation how any of us would,” said
Bouten, EOD team leader, 1st EOD Co., 7th ESB,
CLR-1, 1st MLG. “With lives in danger, we had to
make sure we found and disarmed the IEDs before
anyone else was injured.”
The last Bronze
Star recipient, Staff Sgt. Matthew Jackson, 31, from
Calabasas, Calif., who at the time was a sergeant
with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, RCT-7, 1st MarDiv
(FWD), as an EOD team leader, received the award for
displaying tremendous technical proficiency, mental
agility and physical determination in facilitating
the battalion's ability to combat the diverse enemy
IED network and challenging counterinsurgency
environment. As the battalion's lead EOD technician,
he constantly led clearing efforts from the front,
traveling from one position to another and
systematically neutralized more than 100 IEDs,
production facilities and weapons caches. |
Gunnery Sgt. Travis Bouten |
Staff Sgt. Matthew Jackson |
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“He was the first sergeant I ever put as a team leader,”
said Maj. James Shelstad, company commander, 1st EOD
Co., 7th ESB, CLR-1,1st MLG. “With his tremendous effort, he
showed that he can hold that billet and perform well.”
Because of Jackson's work ethic he was placed as a team
leader while he was deployed to Afghanistan.
“The
[commanding officer] trusted me as a team leader, so I went
out and did my job well to show I was capable of the
position,” said Jackson, EOD team leader, 1st EOD Co., 7th
ESB, CLR-1, 1st MLG.
The two Purple Heart Medal
recipients were Staff Sgt. Mario Maldonado, EOD technician,
1st EOD Co., 7th ESB, CLR-1, 1st MLG, 28, from Chandler,
Ariz., and Sgt. Robert Conlon, EOD technician, 1st EOD Co.,
7th ESB, CLR-1, 1st MLG, 30, from Rockaway, N.J. The two
Purple Heart Medals were awarded to the EOD technicians for
wounds received in Afghanistan.
Maldonado was injured
by an IED blast, Feb. 5, 2011, and Conlon suffered a gunshot
wound to the arm Dec. 6, 2010. Each Marine made a full
recovery and finished their tour.
“Staff Sgt.
Maldonado got hit and came back; he says he's about 99
percent right now, and he will be coming back out with us
[on the next deployment]. Sgt. Conlon is amazing, he got
shot through the arm, rehabbed and went back out with recon
on the rest of the deployment,” said Shelstad, 43, from
Canby, Ore. “It just goes to show you how dedicated these
Marines are.” | |
Article and photos By USMC LCpl. Jerrick J. Griffin
1st Marine Logistics Group
Copyright 2011
Provided
through DVIDS
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