{"id":949,"date":"2021-01-02T18:44:18","date_gmt":"2021-01-02T18:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=949"},"modified":"2021-01-04T11:21:22","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T11:21:22","slug":"medal-of-honor-for-black-army-sergeant-after-congress-waives-time-based-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=949","title":{"rendered":"Medal of Honor for Black Army Sergeant After Congress Waives Time Based Restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kevin Michael Briscoe\u00a0<\/a><\/h4>\n

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. \u2014 After a 15-year effort by his family and members of Congress, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed a bill authorizing a posthumous Medal of Honor for U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Alwyn Cashe.<\/p>\n

Introduced by U.S. Reps. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), and Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), the bill waives a federal law that requires a Medal of Honor be awarded within five years of the actions that prompted it.<\/p>\n

The House of Representatives passed it on Sept. 22, but its momentum slowed while Senate Republicans were focused on Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett\u2019s confirmation process. The bill will go to the White House to be signed into law. It permits the Department of Defense to waive the five-year rule for Cashe.<\/p>\n

Cashe died on Nov. 8, 2005, from injuries he sustained while rescuing his fellow soldiers from a vehicle destroyed by an Improvised Explosive Device in Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so grateful the Senate passed our bill to pave the way for the President to award Alwyn Cashe the Medal of Honor,\u201d said Murphy, who represents the Sanford, Fla., and Oviedo Fla., communities where Cashe was born and raised.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now very close to recognizing this unbelievably heroic soldier, who died saving his men, with our nation\u2019s highest award for combat valor, which he earned beyond a shadow of a doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy\u2019s co-sponsors were effusive after the bill cleared the Senate on the eve of Veterans Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are one step closer to properly recognizing Sergeant First Class Alwyn Cashe for his bravery in risking his own life to save his fellow soldiers,\u201d said Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL. \u201cHe is deserving of the Medal of Honor, our nation\u2019s highest military award for bravery on the battlefield, and we urge President [Donald] Trump to quickly sign our bill into law to make sure that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not every day you read an extraordinary story like Alwyn Cashe\u2019s,\u201d Waltz, a former Army Special Forces officer, said. \u201cHis bravery in the face of danger has inspired so many already, and this is a significant step forward to properly recognize him for his heroism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cashe will be the 91st African American serviceman to receive the Medal of\u00a0honor.<\/i><\/p>\n

The long, hard road to now<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cashe was born on July 13, 1970, the youngest of a blended family of 18 children. He is remembered by his sister as a \u201crambunctious, spoiled, somewhat bad kid\u201d with a passion for the outdoors.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very outdoorsy,\u201d said Kasinal Cashe White, 62, a registered nurse in Tallahassee, Fla. \u201cHis favorite times were when he had a gun on his hip or a fishing pole in his hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating from Oviedo High in 1988, Cashe enlisted in the U.S. Army, where, as an infantryman, he served tours of duty in the 1991 Gulf War and during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 17, 2005, acting as a platoon sergeant for 1st Platoon, Alpha Company, Cashe, and his troops embarked on a mission to clear a route in the city of Daliaya.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Military Times\u00a0<\/i>reports, Cashe was in the lead Bradley Fighting Vehicle when it struck an Improvised Explosive Device, rupturing the vehicle\u2019s fuel cell, covering him in fuel, and causing the Bradley to engulf into flames.<\/p>\n

While ablaze and under heavy gunfire from insurgents, Cashe rescued six soldiers from the burning vehicle, returning multiple times and refusing medical assistance until everyone was pulled from the burning wreckage.<\/p>\n

At the end of the skirmish, an interpreter was killed in action, with 10 soldiers wounded, seven severely.<\/p>\n

Cashe was flown to a medical facility in Germany after having 72% of his body severely burned before being transported to Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where he ultimately succumbed to his wounds.<\/p>\n

When the news of her brother\u2019s incident first came to light, White thought little of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told that Al had been hurt,\u201d she said. \u201cMy sister, Bernadine, told me he\u2019d been in an accident, so I thought maybe he broke his leg.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her commute from her then-Lake Butler, Fla., home to Gainesville, Fla., where she was working as an intensive care nurse, she received another call: the description of his condition was downgraded from \u201churt\u201d to \u201cwounded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, you\u2019ve got my full attention,\u201d she said. \u201cI was routed to the doctor in Iraq that told me Al had been burned and was in critical condition. That\u2019s not a term that\u2019s used loosely. All I could think was, \u2018please don\u2019t let my brother die. Send him home to me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The fog of war made initial reports of the action sketchy. Unaware of how badly wounded Cashe was and the extent of his heroism, mainly performing a rescue while taking on enemy gunfire, his battalion commander at the time, now-Lt. Gen. Gary Brito, nominated Cashe for the Silver Star.<\/p>\n

Along with a Purple Heart, that award was presented to Cashe\u2019s mother outside his hospital room, where he lay fatally wounded.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the hospital staff provided Cashe\u2019s sister with more details of his actions on that fateful day in Daliaya.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were telling me that my brother was a hero, but, in the U.S., that\u2019s a word we throw around a lot,\u201d said White. \u201cBut, I did my research and concluded that my brother deserved a Medal of Honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

After getting the \u201crun-around\u201d from former Sen. Bill Nelson and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who both claimed they could not aid in her efforts to upgrade Cashe\u2019s Silver Star to a Medal of Honor, Rep. Murphy took up the mantle.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe called me and said, \u2018Ms. White, I\u2019ve been reading your brother\u2019s story, and I can\u2019t believe a Florida citizen did this, and there\u2019s not a building named after him. I will support you,\u2019\u201d said White.<\/p>\n

On July 14, 2014, a new Army Reserve Center in Sanford, Florida got Cashe\u2019s name. The Oviedo, Florida post office was renamed in his honor in May 2019.<\/p>\n

Buoyed by additional statements provided to the Army by Brito to justify upgrading Cashe\u2019s award to a Silver Star, Murphy, Waltz, and Crenshaw reached out to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper last fall to formally request the upgrade.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter giving the nomination careful consideration, I agree that SFC Cashe\u2019s actions merit award of the Medal of Honor,\u201d Esper responded in a letter to Waltz on Aug. 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, 10 U.S.C. \u00a7 7274 requires that the Medal of Honor be awarded \u2018within five years after the date of the act justifying the award.\u2019 Before we can take further action with this nomination, Congress must waive this time limit. Once legislation is enacted authorizing the President of the United States to award, if he so chooses, the Medal of Honor to SFC Cashe, I will provide my endorsement to the President.\u201d<\/p>\n

After skepticism born of a decade and a half of trying, White said she is elated at the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart is overjoyed. We now have passed the Senate, which means we have full support,\u201d she said. \u201cThis means more than you\u2019ll ever know because now all we need is for the president to sign off on the endorsement, and my brother, Sgt. First Class Alwyn C. Cashe, will finally get the medal he deserves, our nation\u2019s highest honor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kevin Michael Briscoe\u00a0 ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. \u2014 After a 15-year effort by his family and members of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-zenger-zone"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=949"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1363,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions\/1363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}