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"It was the greatest thing anybody ever said to me," said Petty Officer
Third Class Joshua Chiarini

"He said, 'Doc, when I saw you coming through the smoke, I knew things were
going to be OK.'

Marine Brig. Gen. David H. Berger, who presented Chiarini the Silver Star
said "He reacted the way he did for one simple reason: to take care of the
Marine at his right and the Marine to his left. Simple as that.He would not
let his fellow warriors down. He used himself to protect his comrades. We
can not ask of anything more."

On Feb. 10, 2006, Chiarini, who was deployed to Iraq with BLT 1/2, 22nd
Marine Expeditionary Unit, was riding in the third vehicle of a Marine
patrol in Anbar when a roadside bomb detonated near the lead vehicle.  A
larger explosion occurred moments later and insurgents opened up on the
convoy with small arms.  The scene was dense with smoke, small arms fire and
hand grenade explosions.

When his less experienced driver balked at driving forward, Chiarini grabbed
his rifle and medical kit and ran forward as insurgents fired at him from
rooftops.  I said, 'Screw it. I am going forward.' " he recalled. "I felt
like corpsmen that had gone before me in earlier wars were there. I could
feel their hands on my shoulders as I worked."

Chiarini ran 200 meters through enemy fire to reach the wounded Marines. One
by one, he directed three of them to limp toward the armored Humvee, while
he followed them, laying down covering fire with his M16. Then, with one
hand, he carried the more seriously wounded interpreter to the rear, turning
his body sideways at times to lay down cover fire.

When they reached the rear of the armored Humvee, Chiarini began treating
their injuries

One by one, Chiarini helped guide each person to safety. Chiarini led the
interpreter, who had a mangled arm, to a secure Humvee. He guided the M-16
fire of a blinded Marine toward the insurgents. Chiarini then made three
separate trips from the Humvee to the battlefield to treat and retrieve each
of the wounded, all while braving a high volume of incoming rounds and
laying down cover fire. For much of the time, Chiarini applied aid to the
wounded with one arm, while providing suppressive fire with the other. After
moving the team to safety, Chiarini stayed on the battlefield and unleashed
M-16 fire at the enemy forces. He continued the fight as reinforcements
arrived, eliminating several insurgents.

On October 22, 2007, Chiarini received the Silver Star medal in the Rhode
Island statehouse.

The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting
the Silver Star to Hospital Corpsman Third Class Joshua T. Chiarini, United
States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the
enemy as Platoon Corpsman, 1st Platoon, Battery G, Battalion Landing Team
1/2, Twenty-Second Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) in support of
Operation IRAQI FREEDOM 04-06, in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on 10 February
2006. While conducting a combat patrol, 3d Squad was attacked by two
improvised explosive devices followed by heavy small arms and machine gun
fire that wounded five Marines and one interpreter. Witnessing the initial
attack and seeing that the road ahead was blocked by disabled vehicles,
Petty Officer Chiarini immediately left the relative safety of his vehicle
and fought his way across one hundred meters of fire-swept terrain to reach
the casualties. He then used his own body to shield the wounded from the
increasingly high volume of incoming rounds as me moved them to cover.
Realizing that most of the wounded needed to be evacuated, without
hesitation, he placed himself between the casualty and the enemy fire,
assisting the casualty with one arm while providing suppressive fire on the
enemy with his rifle in the other. He then fought his way back across the
one hundred meters of fire-swept terrain to the casualty collection point.
He repeated this action three times until each casualty was stabilized and
safely loaded for evacuation. Despite the insurgents concentrating their
fire on him, he remained focused on saving the lives of his wounded
comrades. By his zealous initiative, courageous actions, and exceptional
dedication to duty, Petty Officer Chiarini reflected great credit upon
himself and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval
Service.

Resources:

Hospital Corpsman Third Class Joshua T. Chiarini on defenselink