Did the Army do enough to honor soldier’s bravery in Afghanistan?

During the more than two decades of “terrorism” wars in the Middle East, there have been numerous stories of bravery but some are lesser known and often forgotten.

One of those is the story of a 19-year-old Army combat medic from Utah.

Specialist Jordan Matthew Byrd was born in the small town of Cody, Wyoming, which is famous for being the home of the infamous “Buffalo Bill.”

While he may have been a small-town kid, he had big dreams and was on a path to achieve them.

After moving to Utah, Jordan attended high school at Dugway High where he was the Senior Class President, a member of the National Honor Society, and played on the school baseball team and wrestling team.

He was even able to graduate two months early and was taking classes at the University of Utah when he chose to join the U.S. Army.

With aspirations of being a doctor one day, he chose to go into the medical field in the Army.

After finishing his Army training he was assigned to Company A “Able,” 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment,  4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division as a combat medic.

The 506th Infantry Regiment is famously known for the portrayal of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division during WWII in the HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers.”

In 2010, Bryd’s Battalion, along with the 2nd Battalion and the rest of the 4th Brigade were deployed to Afghanistan to support Operation Enduring Freedom.

While on patrol in October of 2010, his platoon was patrolling a field in Yahya Khel district, Paktika province, when the lead soldier, Spc. Adam “Susie” Sustaita, was hit in the leg by what appeared to be sniper fire.

After being hit, Sustaita’s fire team was ambushed by enemy small arms fire, Rocket Propelled Grenades, and mortars.

This is when Byrd bravely ran across the field to treat his friend, Sustaita.

“Within minutes after I was hit, “Doc Byrd” was by my side, putting the tourniquet on my leg,” Sustaita recalled in 2011.

After successfully applying the tourniquet to his leg, “Doc” was fatally struck by small arms fire.

Sustaita said he could not thank Bryd enough for saving his life and honoring “Doc’s” courage and sacrifice would be a lifetime effort.

“It has changed my life forever,” said Sustaita, holding back tears. “It has motivated me to drive myself harder, to reach deeper than anything ever has before. Not only for Doc Byrd, but for all the guys, the right thing to do is to push ourselves to be the best that we can be, in his memory.”

In August of 2011, over 400 people showed up to see Specialist Jordan M. Byrd, 19, posthumously awarded the Silver Star, the Army’s third-highest award for valor.

The Silver Star Medal and citations were given to Byrd’s young wife Savanna and son Ayden, mother Roberta Pitt, and father Justin Brost.

His son Ayden was too young to remember receiving the Silver Star but remembers his father’s sacrifice every year.

Every year since Byrd’s passing, his family awards a high school student with the Jordan M. Byrd Scholarship for college.

As the years passed and Ayden grew up, he started courageously presenting the scholarship. A video from 2020 shows Ayden reading a speech about his father during the presentation.

My dad was the first to volunteer when someone needed help no matter how big or small the task may have been,” he said.

A fellow soldier who witnessed Bryd’s heroic actions attested to this statement and suggested the Army fell short by only awarding him the Silver Star.

“In my humble opinion you deserve The Medal of Honor (and I don’t think I’m the only one) because if the people that made that call were there with us and watched you run out there with no second thought for your own life to save Susie it would be the easiest call they ever made, but Awards never mattered to you, our brother Adam lived, he made it out of that field and lives a life we are all proud of as a Texas State Trooper. I love you with all my heart my brother!!! CURRAHEE STANDS ALONE!!” he wrote in 2020.

In 2013, the Army decided to cut 10 brigades as part of a force reduction, including the 101st Airborne’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, but the lineage of the 506th Infantry was considered too important to lose.

Every battalion in the 4th Brigade, except for the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 506th Infantry were inactivated on April 25th, 2014.

“I want to make one thing clear, although we may be inactivating the 4th Brigade, we are not inactivating the Curahees of the 101st Airborne Division,” Major General James C. McConville said at the time.

“The 506th Infantry Regiment, the original band of brothers, will live on in the 101st Airborne Division and continue to add chapters of valor to its fabled history,” he added.

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