1st Infantry Division News:
After leading his platoon through a fierce onslaught, enemy fire pounding them from every direction, 1st Lt. Neil Prakash went back in for more.Later ...First Infantry Division Commander Maj. Gen. John R.S. Batiste joined Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment at FOB Scunion Jan. 14 to award this 24-year-old tank platoon leader one of the military’s highest honors - the Silver Star Medal.
“An incredible officer, his accomplishments on 24 June are clearly heroic,” said Batiste. “He sets a very high standard for every one of us. I guarantee veterans of the past are standing very tall right now.”
Although born in India and maintaining strong ties to the Indian community, Prakash was raised in Syracuse, New York, in what he called a very patriotic American household.
An ROTC cadet at Johns Hopkins University, he planned to follow in the footsteps of his mother, father and older brother - all doctors - and attend medical school. But after attending an ROTC Branch Orientation during his senior year, he knew what he was meant to do.
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It took the crew about one hour to fight their way through the next one kilometer stretch of road. Official battle reports count 23 IEDs and 20-25 RPG teams in that short distance, as well as multiple machine-gun nests, and enemy dismounts armed with small arms and hand grenades.
Because enemy dismounts were attempting to throw hand grenades into the tank’s open hatches, Prakash ordered the tanks to open protected mode – bringing the hatches down, leaving them open only a crack.
As the lead vehicle, Prakash’s tank took the brunt of the attack, sustaining blasts from multiple IEDs and at least seven standard and armor piercing RPGs. The enemy fired mainly at the lead tanks, aiming for the few vulnerable spots. One round blew the navigation system completely off of the vehicle, while another well-aimed blast disabled his turret.
Although unable to rotate the turret, Prakash continued in the lead, navigating with a map and maneuvering his tank in order to continue engaging the enemy with the main weapon system and his .50 caliber machine-gun. He watched as men on rooftops sprayed down at his tank with machine-guns and small arms.
Moving south back through the city, they encountered no resistance. Once they neared their objective, however, Prakash identified and engaged an enemy re-supply truck, destroying the vehicle and its contents.
“We blasted it with a main round from about 100 meters away. The thing just blew to shreds,” he said. “You could see the tubes from the launchers go flying in the air.”
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By battle’s end, the platoon was responsible for 25 confirmed destroyed enemy and an estimated 50 to 60 additional destroyed enemy personnel. Prakash was personally credited with the destruction of eight enemy strong-points, one enemy re-supply vehicle, and multiple enemy dismounts.
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