August 21, 2006

Marine earns posthumous Silver Star

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Marine from Louisville who was killed in a gun battle in Iraq last year will be awarded the Silver Star posthumously.

The award will be presented to the family of Sgt. David Neil Wimberg on Aug. 20 at his former unit, Columbus, Ohio-based Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines.

Wimberg, 24, was killed in Hadithah, Iraq, on May 25, 2005.

His brother, Mike Wimberg, said their parents, Denny and Tricia Wimberg of Louisville, plan to accept the award.

“It will not replace him, and we’d much rather have him back. But for the family, it’s a nice honor,” Mike Wimberg said.

Wimberg, a 1999 graduate of Louisville Trinity High School, was a squad leader in Iraq. He and his fellow Marines were pinned down on a street after an enemy ambush, according to a citation signed by Navy Secretary Donald Winter.


Wimberg left his covered position, “maneuvered through intense small-arms fire and scaled a wall” to reach the courtyard where the attackers were, according to the citation.

“Although twice driven back by high volumes of enemy fire, on his third attempt, he opened the gate and allowed his squad to enter” the courtyard. After two failed attempts to breach the front door of the house where the gunmen had holed up, “Sgt. Wimberg kicked in the door.”

Wimberg was then face-to-face with four armed insurgents, and he “engaged the enemy at close quarters, firing his M16A4 rifle until he was shot and fell to the ground unconscious,” the citation states.

His actions “created the momentum needed to break the ambush. Many Marines’ lives were saved as a result of Sgt. Wimberg’s decisive and selfless actions,” it states.

Gunnery Sgt. Larry Bowman, who served with Wimberg in Iraq, described him as “an exceptional Marine and a great leader. We had great respect for him.”

— The Associated Press

Ellie