The President of the United States of America, authorized by Executive Order 11046, 24 August 1962, takes pleasure in presenting the Bronze Star Medal with Combat “V” to Sergeant First Class Jeffary M. Hoose, United States Army, for exceptionally valorous conduct in the face of the enemy of the United States on 18 February 2007 as the Detachment Engineer Sergeant, Operational Detachment Alpha – 2081 (ODA-2081), Special Operations Task Force-North, Muqdadiayn, Iraq in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. Sergeant Hoose distinguished himself by heroically reacting to contact while wounded during an insurgent ambush on his Detachment’s vehicular patrol to overwhelm the enemy. His actions are in keeping with the finest traditions of Military heroism and reflect distinct credit upon him, the Special Operations Task Force-North, Special Operations Command Central, and the United States Army.
NARRATIVE TO ACCOMPANY AWARD:
Sergeant First Class Jeffary M. Hoose heroically distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous conduct in the face of the enemy of the United States as Senior Engineer Sergeant of Operational Detachment – Alpha 2081, Special Operations Task Force – North, Muqdadiyah, Iraq, in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM on 18 February 2007. On 18 February 2007, Sergeant First Class Hoose was serving as the driver of the lead vehicle during a Detachment patrol moving through Muqdadiyah, Iraq. As the patrol was proceeding the lead vehicle was struck head on by an insurgent fired rocket propelled grenade that completely disabled the vehicle. Shrapnel from the rocket propelled grenade punctured the firewall of the vehicle injuring his right arm, face, and causing a fire in the vehicle. Sergeant First Class Hoose extinguished the fire with his hand causing burns to his forearm then quickly brought the vehicle under control stopping it from careening into a road side ditch. The vehicle immediately fell under insurgent machine gun and AK-47 fire from two directions. Sergeant First Class Hoose quickly dismounted the vehicle, took cover in the road side ditch, and began providing suppressive fire on enemy positions. After providing this initial suppressive fire Sergeant First Class Hoose quickly moved from his position in the ditch to a wall enabling him to better provide fire on the location of highest enemy insurgent concentration. At this point the disabled vehicle came under fire from a third direction. Sergeant First Class Hoose ran to the vehicle from his position on the wall to retrieve an M-249 Squad Automatic Weapon and began engaging insurgents firing on the vehicle from this third direction. After suppressing the enemy, he noticed insurgents firing from around a wall two hundred meters away. Sergeant First Class Hoose retrieved an M-203 Grenade Launcher and expertly launched grenades on this enemy location stopping their fire. The disabled vehicle then came under fire from an insurgent machine gun position from a second story window. Sergeant First Class Hoose jumped on top of the disabled vehicle to retrieve an AT-4 rocket and fired it at the machine gun position in the second story window. Recognizing the dangerous position that the disabled vehicle was in, Sergeant First Class Hoose began directing recovery efforts of the vehicle. He attached tow straps to the rear of the vehicle to begin pulling the vehicle out of the kill zone. The disabled vehicle had no steering control and couldn’t be pulled to the rear so Sergeant First Class Hoose repositioned the tow straps to pull the front of the vehicle completely around. This maneuver allowed the disabled vehicle to be recovered and to be towed out of the area enabling the patrol to break contact. His actions are in keeping with the finest traditions of military heroism and reflect distinct credit upon himself, Special Operations Task Force-North, Special Operations Command Central, and the United States Army.