Marine DI Receives Navy Cross

Local drill sergeant awarded Navy Cross
Marine's second-highest honor given for daring rescue in Iraq


By LORI YOUNT
The Beaufort Gazette
When Sgt. Aubrey McDade Jr. found out that he had been chosen to receive the Marine Corps' second-highest award for darting into enemy fire to rescue wounded Marines, he didn't want it.
"Everybody told me congratulations, but I thought they should not congratulate me if other Marines were hurt," McDade, now a drill instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, said after he was awarded the Navy Cross during a graduation ceremony at the base Friday. "But I'm at ease with what happened over there."

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According to the official award citation, McDade ordered a machine gun team into the alley to suppress enemy fire and then McDade himself "showed total disregard for his own safety" and dashed out into the machine gun fire several times to pull the three Marines to safer ground.

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"You don't got time to feel, 'What if I'm going to get shot?'" said McDade, a husband and father of three. "I didn't think about being shot."

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He didn't talk to his recruits, who graduated in Friday's ceremony, about his award until the last few weeks of their 13-week training because he wanted to make sure they recognized him as a drill instructor and not for actions in combat.



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The real heros are the ones who say that they didn't do anyything special, like this guy.