Vance Noah was serving as a sergeant in Iraq in 2006 when a suicide bomber attacked his vehicle. Of the ten soldiers on board, 5 were killed and 5, including Noah, sustained injuries. They are part of the 4178 Americans killed and more than 30-thousand wounded since the U.S. invasion.
Noah acknowledges that his injuries were mild in comparison to others, but he was dismayed to hear initially that he wasn’t going to get honored for his sacrifice.
NOAH: My injuries were minor--not bad: two perforated ear drums, minor burns. They weren't that severe so my lieutenant thought he didn't put the paperwork in and we thought we deserved recognition for it.
Noah reached out to Senator Sherrod Brown who pushed for the Sergeant from Parma to get a purple heart. Two years after the attack, he received that honor before a small group at the Cuyahoga County Veterans' Service Commission.
Senator Brown said the military doesn't always step up to give veterans the awards they're due and he was glad to rectify that. Right after presenting the Purple Heart though, Senator Brown rushed back to Washington to vote on the bailout bill. The teetering economy…not the war…is the biggest threat to the nation at the moment.