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Soldier receives Purple Heart for wounds received in action

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Stacy Fowler
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq --  The steady beep of a pulse monitor served as a soft metronome during a presentation of the Purple Heart medal to Army Spc. Christian Santiago, a gunner with the 1013th Engineer's Company, from Lt. Gen. John Koziol, deputy under secretary of defense (intelligence) for Joint and Coalition Warfighter Support, during a brief ceremony Nov. 9, 2010, Joint Base Balad, Iraq.

Specialist Santiago, clad in a hospital gown, reclined in a bed at the Air Force Theater Hospital's Intensive Care Unit as his fellow soldiers gathered close to hear the reading of the citation and medal presentation. Specialist Santiago, a member of the Puerto Rico National Guard, was wounded during a patrol Nov. 8, 2010, but doesn't think that what he did was "all that special."

"This is my job, what I signed up for," he said. "I came here to complete my mission, and sometimes things happen. But you can't let fear of what 'might happen' stop you from doing what you need to do."

After the ceremony, Specialist Santiago was transported from Balad on an Air Force aeromedical evacuation flight for continued treatment in Germany, and finally home to Puerto Rico where his friends and family, including his three-year-old daughter, were waiting for him.

But even though he was leaving his unit in Iraq, he had some advice for those who are staying here:

"We are all from different places and different families," said Specialist Santiago. "But that uniform is what makes us one family and one unit. My brothers here watched out for me and saved my life, and I want to make sure that, even though I'm leaving, we continue to take care of each other."