Navy Secretary Ray Mabus will award the Navy Cross to Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Richard A. Jibson this morning at Twentynine Palms for "extraordinary heroism" during a May 2012 battle in Afghanistan.
The Navy Cross is the second highest military decoration awarded to a member of the U.S. Navy or Marine Corps.
(DVIDS will live stream the ceremony beginning at 11 a.m. PDT. To watch, click here.)
According to Jibson's Navy Cross award citation:
"Throughout the multiple engagements over the ensuing five hours, he bravely left covered positions and crossed open terrain many times under withering small arms and machine gun fire to provide suppressive fire, inspire his comrades, and direct the fire and maneuver of the entire coalition force.
"When a fellow Marine was shot in the head by an enemy sniper, Gunnery Sergeant Jibson fearlessly charged into a hail of enemy machine gun fire, pulled the exposed wounded Marine to cover, and then assisted a corpsman in rendering emergency measures to stabilize him."
According to the Marine Corps Times, Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Andrew Owensby will receive the Bronze Star during today's ceremony for heroism during the same battle.
