April 4, 2005
He Gave It All For 'His Boys'
First Medal Of Honor From Iraq Hostilities Being Awarded
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Play CBS Video Video Medal Of Honor Awarded The Medal of Honor is the rarest distinction a soldier can receive - one hasn't been awarded since 1993. A soldier who died in Iraq is being honored, Tracy Smith reports.
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Video Medal Of Honor Awarded For the first time in a dozen years, the Medal of Honor will be awarded to a U.S. soldier: Sgt. Paul Ray Smith, killed in combat in the Iraq War. The Early Show's Tracy Smith reports.
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Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith (AP)
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Interactive Two Years Later Major events, photos and more on the rebuilding of Iraq.
After two years, the family still feels the loss as if it happened yesterday.
Jessica, 18, and David, 11, are proud of the medal, but miss their dad.
"I get mad at him, because it's really not fair for him to be up there and I'm down here," David laments. "It's like my best friend is gone now. …I would rather have him back than have the Medal of Honor."
"Usually," Jessica says, "the father walks the bride down the aisle. And I'm not gonna have that. You know, I won't have him be there when I have grandchildren. He won't be there for my graduation."
"I still wear his ring," Birgit says. "And as long as I have the ring on my finger and the breath in me, he will be my husband."
The consummate soldier, Sgt. Smith made all of his men write a final letter home, in case they didn't return.
Pvirre reads his aloud, crying: "As I sit here getting ready to go to war once again, I realize that I have left some things left unsaid. I love you and I don't want you to worry. …There are two ways to come home: stepping off the plane, and being carried off the plane. It doesn't matter how I come home, because I am prepared to give all that I am, to insure that all my boys make it home."
David will be the one to receive the medal on Monday.
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