Injured and disoriented, soldier 'had some fight left'

Blinded by a dust storm kicked up by helicopter rotor wash and grenade explosions, all Sgt. 1st Class Michael Lindsay could see was shadowy figures scurrying about in the dim light, grabbing weapons. // In the ensuing firefight inside a remote rural compound in Samarra, Iraq, Lindsay was seriously wounded. But he and his fellow Army Green Berets kept firing.

When it was over, 11 insurgents were dead - including the target of the predawn raid, a man described by the Army as a high-value terrorist who had been financing weapons and roadside bombs with profits from a kidnapping and extortion ring.

Last month, in recognition of his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity" in the Sept. 10, 2007, firefight, Lindsay, a 1997 graduate of Gates County High School in North Carolina, was awarded the Silver Star, the Army's third-highest medal for valor.

Recalling the incident in a telephone interview from Fort Carson, Colo., Lindsay described a frantic scene as the Iraqi insurgents, alerted by the helicopter landing just 20 feet from the compound, scrambled to fend off the attacking force of 10 U.S. soldiers and 20 Iraqi national police officers.

First there was a burst of AK-47 fire that hit Lindsay in the throat and stomach. Then a grenade went off, sending Lindsay and another soldier flying back out the doorway.

"At that point we were just kind of out there in no man's land," Lindsay said. "The firefight was still going on inside. The bullets were flying over my head, going back and forth."

Struggling to stay conscious, Lindsay couldn't muster the strength to get up or even to lift his rifle.

"So I took out my pistol and started shooting," he said. "I wanted to let 'em know I had some fight left."

When the guns finally fell silent, Lindsay, 30, was airlifted to a field hospital in Iraq. He subsequently had weeks of treatment at the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, and Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

A two-foot section of his intestine was removed. He still has a bullet in his abdomen that doctors deemed too risky to take out.

Since then he has been back to Iraq for another tour of duty, his third of the war.

Two other soldiers from his unit, the 10th Special Forces Group, also received medals for their roles in the 2007 raid.

For Lindsay, there was excitement on the home front last month as well. His wife gave birth to twin daughters, the couple's first children.

Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com