Photo By Maj. Wayne Clyne | Lt. Col. Paul Dyer holds a guidon from his Afghanistan deployment with all his...... read more read more
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SALEM, Ore. — Lt. Col. Paul Dyer was awarded the Purple Heart on Saturday, April 7, 2024, for wounds he sustained in combat 16 years ago during an intense ambush while deployed to Afghanistan's Helmand Province in 2008.
Brig. Gen. Alan Gronewold, the Adjutant General of Oregon, presented Dyer with the medal in recognition of his "incredible courage and perseverance during one of the fiercest fighting periods" in the war.
On July 27, 2008, Dyer was a captain serving with a 16-member Embedded Training Team advising an Afghan counter-drug Special Operations Kandak battalion in the Helmand River valley. His small team operated out of a company-sized forward operating base called PB Attal along the river.
Dyer's team, along with the Afghan Army personnel assigned to them, came under a complex ambush involving mortars, RPGs, machine guns, and a 23mm anti-aircraft gun from Taliban forces that day.
"They had a pretty complicated ambush for us," Dyer recalled. "Everything they had was prepositioned and targeted where we would be...They knew exactly what they were doing."
During the hours-long firefight, Dyer was knocked unconscious when a mortar round exploded nearby, causing a concussive head trauma.
Despite his injuries, Dyer refused medical evacuation as the senior officer present. "As long as I was functional, I wasn't going to leave anyone," he said.
Dyer continued coordinating his troops' movements as they fought to break contact and withdrew the 400 meters back to their patrol base under sustained enemy fire.
"It was just 400 meters of full kit dismount," he said. "You're almost walking after 200 meters because you can't run anymore."
Initially, Dyer's injuries did not qualify him for the Purple Heart, which at the time excluded concussions and traumatic brain injuries. However, in 2011, the Defense Department revised the criteria to include TBIs, allowing Dyer and many other veterans to receive belated recognition.
Dyer had help from the Oregon National Guard's G1 personnel section and Medical Command in gathering and assembling the documentation needed for the Purple Heart award.
"I think it speaks volumes to our own G1 section and MEDCOM because they were able to get together and put the puzzle pieces together and then submit it," Dyer said. "I want to recognize and be thankful that the DoD recognizes this stuff because there are after-effects."
Despite the lingering impacts from the 2008 ambush, Dyer's award finally highlights the evolving understanding of battlefield brain trauma. It ensures his selfless service and sacrifices did not go unrecognized, even over a decade later.
"It sounds make-believe, some of the missions we went on," he said of that fateful deployment advising the elite Afghan counter-drug forces. "But we were there doing it."
Dyer encouraged others with similar stories to come forward. "I just encourage anyone with a similar story or experiences to come forward and put a packet together and get it submitted to Army Human Resources Command for evaluation," he said. It's an award that I've learned is not recommended—either you qualify or you don't. If you feel you meet the criteria, I highly recommend you submit a packet."
For Dyer, receiving the Purple Heart years later provided "an element of closure" and a chance to reunite with the team that went through the harrowing 2008 deployment together. "It was an awesome opportunity to recognize some of those folks that were so critical," he said.
For those wishing to learn more about Dyer's team's experience in Helmand Province, Oregon, documentary filmmaker Gary Mortensen's 2010 movie "Shepherds of Helmand" is available to view for free on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/412892555.
| Date Taken: | 04.07.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 04.18.2024 17:41 |
| Story ID: | 468823 |
| Location: | SALEM, OREGON, US |
| Hometown: | CORVALLIS, OREGON, US |
| Web Views: | 184 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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