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Navy SEAL gets Silver Star for Iraq heroism

SAN DIEGO – In recent years, Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) Mitchell Hall has competed in triathlons and the Hawaii Ironman, but on Jan. 26 he quietly received one of the nation’s top medals for heroism in combat.

Navy Capt. Thomas Brown II pinned the Silver Star medal on Hall in a low-key ceremony held in a conference room at Naval Special Warfare Group 1, the command said in a Jan. 28 statement.

Hall received the medal, the third highest award to sailors for combat valor after the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross, for his “conspicuous gallantry and heroic actions against the enemy” during a deployment that included an intense firefight near Habbaniyah, Iraq, on April 2, 2007.

According to the release, Hall, assigned to the Naval Special Warfare Center, deployed with Coronado, Calif.-based SEAL Team 5 and was manning observation posts along the Euphrates River with a squad of Iraqi commandos when their radios rang out with reports of a Marine Corps unit caught by sniper fire nearby.

Hall’s men spotted suspicious enemy fighters near their post, and soon after the men traded heavy gunfire across alleys and between buildings with the insurgents. Rounds struck one of the SEALs, and Hall ran over to his aid.

“Under heavy fire, Hall repeatedly exposed himself to heavy fire to engage the enemy and provide suppressive fire for his teammates. He and his squad then worked to secure a helicopter landing zone for the wounded SEAL’s extraction,” the release stated.

Brown, the commodore, commended Hall’s actions, saying he “acted with great skill to save an injured teammate, his heroic actions battling insurgents that day in Albu Bali is part of the Naval Special Warfare’s remarkable work in defeating the insurgency in the west part of Iraq.”