Aussie stars
US meritorious service medal awarded to Australians for actions in Iraq

US Bronze Star

By Pte John Wellfare

FOUR Army members have been awarded the US Bronze Star for their service with joint headquarters in support of operations in Iraq.

Col Andrew Smith, Land Warfare Development Centre, Maj Brent Maddock, HQ 1 Bde, Maj Scott Winter, 1 Armd Regt, and WO1 Patrick Hills, 1CSR, received the medal, which is awarded for “heroic or meritorious achievement or service ... in connection with military operations against an armed enemy, or while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing armed force”.

Col Smith’s receipt of the medal was announced alongside two Australian Navy captains by Minister for Defence Robert Hill.

“Col Smith played a key role in the development of two essential engineer works,” Mr Hill said.

“His efforts were pivotal to engineering improvements in Iraqi facilities and infrastructure.

“Great strides were made in improvised explosive device awareness due to Col Smith’s work and that of the staff under his leadership.

“Although exact numbers are unknown, the work probably saved numerous lives.”

Maj Maddock, who served as the deputy chief of engineer operations in the American corps headquarters from February to August, said Australians serving with US forces in Iraq had earned a reputation for performing well.

“I was the only, what we would call ‘regular’ soldier, in the engineer operations section, the rest were reserves,” he said.

“My experience base was actually greater than the majority of the people I was working for.”

One of Maj Maddock’s key duties while serving in Iraq had been the maintenance of the main supply route for coalition resupply traffic. The citation accompanying his Bronze Star praises his efforts to keep the route open by coordinating missions to repair bridges attacked by anti-coalition forces.

Maj Maddock also developed procedures for bridge repair tasks based on the lessons of early missions.

Australians are highly regarded for their broad skill base and subsequent ability to adapt to a range of situations and tasks.

WO1 Hills worked in the Joint Operations Centre in Iraq for six months from August 2003 to January this year as the operations sergeant major, responsible for the 15-member team that kept the centre running.

“The staff underneath me used to run the battle map, used to do the slide shows, run the radio system, keep the whole thing powered up and this ran basically 24-seven,” WO1 Hills said.

“I had [US] reserves working for me who had, when I got there, done six months and by the time I left they’d done 12.

“There’s guys that were there working with me that had two Bronze Stars.

“For me it was actually quite surreal because I was working in a corps-level operations centre, which had six divisions and 18 brigades underneath it.

“You don’t realise what level you’re working at. The one I was working in was 150,000 soldiers.”

The number of Australians receiving awards while posted to US-run joint headquarters reflected the high regard in which the ADF is held, WO1 Hills said.

“They love Australians, they’d have as many as they could working in there with them,” he said.

“All of our guys who were embedded over there did a marvellous job.

“I’m obviously stoked and chuffed, especially as an other rank, getting a Bronze Star. Most of the other people that have got the Bronze Stars are officers.”

Deputy Chief of Joint Operations Maj-Gen Mark Evans presented the medals to the 1 Bde members at a recent ceremony at Robertson barracks.