He Gave It All For 'His Boys'

First Medal Of Honor From Iraq Hostilities Being Awarded

(CBS) 

Sgt. Smith, reports Tracy Smith, was deployed at the tip of the spear. He fought with the first wave of soldiers driving north to Baghdad, whipped by sandstorms, surrounded by the thunder of unfinished battle.

On the morning of April 4, 2003, while setting up a roadblock by Baghdad's international airport, his company was surprised by a sudden storm of Iraqi fire.

"Things just started getting crazy, there were shots coming in from every angle," Pvt. Michael Seaman of the 3rd Infantry Division said a few days later.

"I was going to be the first one to go through the wall, and he pushed me back and said, 'No. I got this,'" recalled the 3rd Infantry's Sgt. Matthew Keller.

With bullets blazing, Sgt. Smith jumped on a .50-caliber machine gun mounted on an abandoned truck and fired at three Iraqi positions, while single-handedly providing cover so his outnumbered soldiers could escape.

The Army says from 50 to 100 men were able to get to safety while Sgt. Smith was on that gun.

Smith was shot in the neck and killed.

"If it wasn't for Sgt. Smith…everybody might not have got out as safe as they did," marvels Pvt. Seaman.

The Medal of Honor that Sgt. Smith's actions that day earned for him is the rarest distinction given to soldiers. It recognizes extreme bravery that goes beyond the call of duty.

The medal has not been awarded since 1993.

"He died a hero in my eyes. Nothing less," says Pvt. Seaman.

On the day of the battle, Birgit would write a letter to a husband who had already dead. "It never crossed my mind," she says, "that Paul would die. Never. Not once. Not my man."

Sgt. Smith and Birgit met in Germany in 1989. On their first date, inspired by his favorite movie, "Top Gun," he serenaded her under her hotel window at 3 a.m.

"You have to picture him down on one knee," Birgit says, "and having his arms up like that and singing, 'I Lost That Loving Feeling.' It was kind of romantic. You know, it was cool."

But in 11 years of marriage, Birgit says, she would always come second: "It was first the army and boys, then the wife. …You learn to accept it, you know. He would have done anything for his boys."

Sgt. Smith's mother, Janice Pvirre says, "I am so humbled that our country is going to bestow this on my son."

For a mother, even the Army's highest honor is no consolation: "I guess it's just another medal. It's not going to bring my son home. I'm proud and I'm humbled. But it hurts," she says, weeping quietly.

"So many people die in the Iraq war," Birgit says. "But with Paul, he's not a statistic. …I know that Paul will go into history, and his name will never, ever be forgotten."