By Staff Sgt. Phil Fountain
Texas Military Forces
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Gov. Rick Perry presented a Texas National Guardsman with the Purple Heart, the Air Medal with “V” Device for acts of heroism and the Combat Medical Badge during a ceremony at the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas, Nov. 1, 2012. Perry, commander-in-chief of the Texas National Guard, honored the service member’s sacrifice, as well as the numerous Texans and Americans who have served during the past decade.
“The young men and women of this generation have been asked to perform on battlefields in Iraq, and Afghanistan, standing up against the forces of terror at home and abroad,” Perry said. “Without their willingness to give their all, if required, America would be nothing but a sad footnote in history, a place that held great promise, once upon a time.”
Staff Sgt. Patrick D. Rogers, Jr., of Galveston, Texas, a flight medic assigned to the Texas Army National Guard’s Austin-based 36th Combat Aviation Brigade, received the citations from Perry, on behalf of the U.S. Army, for his actions this past June and July while he was assigned to the U.S. Army’s Task Force Wolfpack, a subcomponent of the 4th Platoon at Forward Operating Base Salerno in the province of Khowst, in southeastern Afghanistan, which is near the country’s border with Pakistan.
Full story: Perry honors Texas Guardsman for combat valor