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thedrifter
06-16-07, 06:45 AM
3/5 corporal gets posthumous Navy Cross
By Gidget Fuentes - gfuentes@militarytimes.com
Posted : June 18, 2007

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - Bullets from insurgents' AK47 rifles tore into his legs, but Cpl. Jason Clairday wasn't about to be stopped.

Clairday, 21, had just leapt a 4-foot gap between rooftops three stories above the Fallujah street to reach a mortally wounded member of another platoon on Dec. 12, 2004. Wounded from his first attack into the house, Clairday reorganized the squad and pushed in again, throwing grenades and firing his rifle to lead his men against the insurgent fighters inside.

Enemy fire again struck him, and he was evacuated to a field surgical unit, where he died.

Through that battle, Marines say, Clairday never gave up. On June 4, the Marine Corps awarded the Navy Cross - the nation's second-highest award for valor in combat - to his widow during a ceremony at Camp Pendleton, Calif., as members of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, looked on.

Clairday is the 17th Marine to receive the Navy Cross for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is the sixth member of 3/5 awarded the medal for Iraq - the most service crosses of any unit so far.

During the ceremony, held on a parade deck next to 3/5's headquarters, Col. Larry Nicholson told the story of Clairday's perseverance leading his men despite his wounds.

"He was asked to evacuate. He was told to evacuate. He was supposed to evacuate," said Nicholson, 5th Marines regimental commander, his booming voice carrying across the vast parade deck. "He did not evacuate. What did he do? He went back and rallied his fire team. He rallied all the Marines that were on that rooftop, and he said, 'We're going to go back in' ... and that's exactly what they did."

According to his citation, Clairday, from Salem, Ark., was taking part in a security sweep when another platoon was hit by insurgents. Clairday repositioned his men and reached the rooftop to get to the wounded Marine.

Clairday, after throwing several fragmentation grenades, led the attack into the house, was hit in the legs with AK47 fire and engaged the enemy while getting himself out of the kill zone.

"Without regard for his own wounds, he rejoined the squad making entry and entered the house a second time," the citation states. "Once inside, he took control of the stack and repositioned himself in the front while suppressing the enemy using fragmentation grenades and his rifle."

He was mortally wounded in that second attack.

Marines with 3/5 recalled Clairday's motivation, aggressiveness and decisiveness.

Capt. Todd Moulder, who was Clairday's 2nd Platoon commander, recalled his "loyalty to his brothers" as well as his "sometimes very colorful" cadences.

"The platoon would follow him anywhere," Moulder said.

Several relatives and friends traveled to California for the ceremony. For Clairday's family, hearing his final actions brought tears of grief and joy at the recognition of a young man who had "a mischievous bent" but who they always knew was a good soul.

After the ceremony, his mother, Nancy McWilliams, of Delta, Colo., said Clairday "wanted to do something ... to make a difference."

McWilliams said she wasn't surprised at hearing how he had refused several times to be evacuated during the fighting.

"That's not him," she said, trying to hold back tears.