PFC Christopher S. Adlesperger, A Quiet, Caring, Religious Hero

Bravery is a Corps Value

On my second trip to combat,

Afghanistan

, I explained to my comrades that their preconceptions of who would excel and who would slack would be turned on its head when the bullets began flying.  Some of the biggest slackers in the rear become the greatest Warriors on the battlefield.  Nice guys often demonstrate great prowess. 

Such was the case with PFC Christopher Adlesperger, a

Albuquerque

,

NM

High School athlete turned Marine.  His family never thought of him as a future Warrior nominated for the Medal of Honor.  They noted his kindness.  They remembered him as kind to animals.  He was religious and loved poetry and art.

But looking back now, with his heroism known, they can see in him a determination to never lose and to never let his friends down.  His Uncle Dennis can put it all together.

He carried an M16 with an M203 grenade launcher and on

10 November 2004

, when he entered Fallujah, an Al-Qaeda stronghold, and faced the drugged up terrorists that had been trying to kill his fellow Marines.  Braving enemy fire, he carried wounded Marines to a rooftop for medevac, saving their life while risking his own.

Though his best friend, LCpl Erick Hodges, was killed in the battle, he fought on, harder, braver and smarter.  Wounded from the fragmentation of a grenade but knowing his Platoon was pinned down by machine gun fire, he moved into the fray, exposing himself to heavy enemy fire, attacking that machine gun from a series of positions.  His determined fighting forced the enemy to weaker positions where other Marines could also engage them.

Despite his wounds, he was the first man in when an armored vehicle breached the wall into that final machine gun position destroying the last enemy strongpoint in the Jolan District of Fallujah.  For his actions that day he earned the Navy Cross and lived to fight another day.  It earned him one of the finest things a Marine Officer can say of a Marine: “He was one tough bastard.”

COL

Patrick Malay, Bn Commander

His actions on another day taking on more terrorists in another stronghold earned his mother a Presidential Certificate, a US Flag, and the eternal gratitude of the Nation to her for raising a Man of Honor and sharing him with us.

The Citation to his Navy Cross: PFC Christopher S. Adlesperger, USMC, Alburquerqe, NM, Navy Cross, Iraq

The Story Told Another Way: http://marinetilldeath.multiply.com/journal/item/170/Its_always_the_quiet_ones

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