The Invasion of Iraq: SFC Paul Ray Smith

Welcome to the Medal of Honor podcast, brought to you in partnership with the National Medal of Honor Museum. I’m Ken Harbaugh. In each episode, we’ll learn about a different service member who has distinguished him or herself through an act of valor.

Paul Ray Smith was born on September 24th, 1969 in El Paso, Texas. He moved to Tampa, Florida when he was nine, where he spent the rest of his childhood. As a kid, he always said he wanted to be a soldier, and when he graduated from Tampa Bay Vocational Technical High School, that dream became a reality. At the age of 18, he joined the Army and became a combat engineer.

Smith completed deployments in Saudi Arabia, Bosnia, and Kosovo before being sent to Kuwait in anticipation of the Invasion of Iraq in March 2003. He was a part of Bravo Company 11th Engineering Battalion, which was among the first Americans to cross into Iraq, marking the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

One month later on April 4th, 2003, American forces were attempting to seize Saddam Hussein International Airport. Then Sergeant First Class Smith was leading two platoons of about 3 dozen men, as well as a Bradley Fighting Vehicle and three armored personnel carriers. They had orders to create a holding area for prisoners of war, but as they were working, they were attacked by over 100 Iraqi Republican Guard soldiers. Smith acted quickly, organizing the response of his men, and ordering them to toss grenades towards enemy positions. Under heavy rpg and small arms fire, Smith engaged the enemy with anti-tank weapons and hand grenades. Despite their resistance, the larger enemy force began swarming the area. A friendly tank eventually came to their aid, but had to retreat after running out of ammo. Then an RPG exploded near three of Smith’s men. Shrapnel was sent into all of them, and they needed to be moved to safety. Smith organized their evac, but they were still vulnerable during their retreat . Seeing that a nearby .50 caliber machine gun on top of a carrier was unmanned, Smith exposed himself to enemy fire in order to reach it. There, he laid down cover fire, pushing back the enemy and killing as many as 50 of them. Smith fired all but one ammo canister until he was hit in the head by an enemy round. He was taken to safety, but succumbed to the wound a few minutes later in the hospital.

Smith’s leadership and quick thinking saved the lives of over 100 allied soldiers who were in vulnerable positions just a few hundred meters back. Thanks in part to Smith’s heroism, American forces eventually repelled the Iraqi attack and were able to successfully take control of the airport.

On April 4th, 2005, Sergeant First Class Paul Ray Smith was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his role in protecting his men and fending off the Iraqi attack. Both a firing range in Iraq and a high-tech military training center in Orlando were named after him. He also received over 20 other medals, honors, and citations for his time in uniform.

The Medal of Honor podcast is a production of Evergreen Podcasts.

Nathan Corson is our executive producer and mixing engineer, Declan Rohrs is our associate producer, scriptwriter, and recording engineer, and I’m Ken Harbaugh.

We are proud to support the National Medal of Honor Museum. To learn more, and to support their mission, go to mohmuseum.org. Thanks for listening.