AAFES honors soldier for courage under fire

[unhappycamper]

AAFES honors soldier for courage under fire
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jan 7, 2008 17:13:48 EST

All Spc. Gerry DeNardi wanted was a Whopper.

But when he went to a Burger King stand at Forward Operating Base Taji in Iraq Aug. 15, he spent his lunch break bandaging Army and Air Force Exchange Service employees injured in a mortar attack smack in the middle of the outdoor food court.

DeNardi had just ordered his burger when “me and all of Burger King went flying,” he said. He ran for a shelter, but when he heard a cry for help, he returned to the food court. There, he tended AAFES civilian workers, using his own shirt as a bandage and applying a tourniquet to blast wounds.

Brig. Gen. Keith Thurgood, AAFES commander, said his employees face the same dangers as the troops when they deploy.

“I take a particular interest in anything that impacts their health and safety,” he said. “When I read in the Army Times how this soldier put his own safety aside in the middle of a mortar attack to rush to the aid of some of my folks, I felt he needed to hear from me personally about how much I appreciated his heroic actions,” Thurgood said.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/military_whopper_aafes_080107w/