Marine Corps Times

Gidget Fuentes


The Marine Corps is awarding a Navy Cross medal to a Marine Corps sergeant who braved AK-47 gunfire and grenades to reach five wounded fellow Marines during house-to-house fighting in the Iraqi insurgent stronghold of Fallujah in late 2004.

The medal — the nation’s second-highest award for heroics in combat — will be presented at Camp Pendleton, Calif., on Friday to Sgt. Robert J. Mitchell Jr., base officials said Monday. Lt. Gen. John Sattler, who commands I Marine Expeditionary Force, will pin the award on Mitchell, who left the Corps last year with an honorable discharge.

Mitchell, a corporal at the time, was leading his squad with Kilo Company of 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment during Operation al-Fajr on Nov. 13, 2004, when word came of the Marines trapped inside the house and under attack by insurgents.

According to the citation, which will accompany the medal, Mitchell was struck in the left leg by a ricochet round and in the face and legs by shrapnel from exploding grenades. Inside the house, "while applying first aid to wounded Marines, he noticed a wounded insurgent reach for his weapon. With his weapon inoperable, he drew his combat knife, stabbed the insurgent and eliminated him instantly.

"Limping from his own wounds, Mitchell assisted in the evacuation of the casualties through the impact zone under enemy fire, ultimately saving the lives of multiple Marines," the citation reads. What ensued was an hour-long firefight in the house dubbed by the Marines the "House from Hell" and that left about a dozen men wounded and Sgt. Byron Norwood, 25, dead.

Among the Marines who Mitchell helped treat was 1st Sgt. Brad Kasal, his company first sergeant, who was wounded by gunfire and shrapnel shortly after entering the house. A photograph of the wounded and bleeding Kasal, hand still holding his 9mm pistol, being carried from the house became a much-hailed image of the Marines’ fighting spirit.

Mitchell’s Navy Cross will be the second bestowed to 3/1 Marines for actions that day: Kasal received a Navy Cross during a May 1 ceremony at Camp Pendleton