Sergeant Jason Mike

Sergeant Larry Mike, a career Army man, raised his two sons to get out of bed at zero six-hundred hours on Saturday mornings to do chores. In high school, Jason Mike was a great football player. He earned All-District, All-State and All-American honors. He entered college with dreams of playing professional football, but September 11, 2001 changed those plans. After finishing his college football season, he stepped into combat boots.

Mike trained to be a combat medic. He became assigned to Staff Sergeant Timothy Nein's 617th Military Police Company. The unit first headed to Kuwait, but soon was sent to Iraq. Things were quiet at first for the unit, and Staff Sergeant Nein continued training them for every possible contingency. This constant training is what Sergeant Mike and others in the unit credit for getting them through Palm Sunday, March 20, 2005.

Nein's unit was using the call sign of Raven 42. They had been patrolling a road about 20 miles south of Baghdad when they encountered two huge US supply convoys. They began shadowing the convoys from the rear in case of enemy attack. Between 45-50 insurgents did attack. Nein's unit positioned themselves between the insurgents and the convoys. With three Humvees of MPs, Nein's unit was able to defeat the attacking insurgents. Sergeant Mike at one point was firing an M249 light machine gun in his left hand and an M4 rifle in his right. He was not just spraying bullets but making shots that counted. Near the end of the battle, Sergeant Mike noticed muzzle flashes coming from a farmhouse in a nearby orchard. Using an AT4 tank rocket launcher, Sergeant Mike stopped the sniper fire with one shot. Sergeant Jason Mike also attended his wounded comrades during and after the battle. He was awarded the Silver Star.