Sgt. Maj. Antonio Gonzalez is the operations sergeant main for the Mission Command Coaching Program. His actions in Afghanistan in 2007 would end result within the Silver Star, the third-highest award for valor within the U.S. Army. Gonzalez enlisted within the U.S. Army in 1996, following commencement from Kansas State College, the place he was additionally on the soccer crew.
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.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Antonio Gonzalez (left) converses with Army leaders from the first Infantry Division and Kansas State College throughout the KSU Fort Riley Day occasion, September 17, 2022. He later obtained the Medal of Navy Excellence and a President Emeritus Myers coin introduced by Kansas State College’s President, Dr. Richard Linton, in a pre-game ceremony.
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FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. – Sitting inside one of many many buildings round Fort Leavenworth that belong to the Mission Command Coaching Program, is Sgt. Maj. Antonio Gonzalez. He’s the final word believer within the Army values and by all definition, a struggle hero. His actions in Afghanistan in 2007 would end result within the Silver Star, the third-highest award for valor within the U.S. Army.
Gonzalez grew up in Boyel Heights, which is in East Los Angeles, an space identified for drug and gang wars and likewise excessive unemployment.
“Regardless of what was occurring the place I grew up, I met some excellent mates at Bishop Mora Salesian Excessive College,” stated Gonzalez. “I graduated in 1987 and to at the present time, I nonetheless keep up a correspondence with them. That’s the loyalty we’ve got inside that bond.”
Sports activities have been additionally an escape for him.
“I grew up loving the Raiders, Dodgers, Magic Johnson and the showtime Lakers, Kirk Gibson hitting that dwelling run within the World Sequence, all of that,” he stated.
His ardour and ability in sports activities ultimately led him to a soccer scholarship at Kansas State College enjoying for Invoice Snyder, who gained greater than 200 video games in his faculty soccer teaching profession.
After his enjoying days ended and he earned his faculty diploma in 1994, Gonzalez walked into an Army recruiter’s workplace in 1996, following via on his want since childhood to serve within the army.
“The recruiter was a little bit shocked once I walked in,” stated Gonzalez. “I used to be like ‘you don’t have to provide me a complete speech, you don’t must promote me on something, I need to be an infantryman, the place do I signal?’ I wished to serve my nation. I wished to be on the market within the woods, capturing weapons and all that great things that comes with being an infantryman within the Army.”
Gonzalez stated he got here into the recruiter’s workplace so abruptly they requested if he was operating from the police.
“I had grown up in a group the place a variety of people joined the army and it was one thing I had at all times wished to do, I simply wished to get my training first,” stated Gonzalez.
In 1996, Gonzalez arrived at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, his first responsibility station. Six years later he went to check out for the Special Forces and he ultimately joined the seventh Special Forces Group out of Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. Now a member of the Inexperienced Berets, Gonzalez skilled, suggested and assisted quite a few instances in South and Central America.
Like many within the fight arms and particular forces group, there have been a number of deployments to Afghanistan throughout twenty years of struggle. The occasions of June 11, 2007, stay clear in Gonzalez’s head prefer it simply occurred.
On the time, Gonzalez was a part of the Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha 732 out of Ft. Bragg. He and the others have been ambushed by Taliban fighters following a routine patrol within the Uruzgan Province. All through the combat, he uncovered himself to Taliban snipers and machine gunners thrice, ultimately saving the lives of 4 Afghan safety forces that had been trapped. Gonzalez virtually died within the course of.
“A sniper bullet simply whispered proper by my head,” he stated. “I might have kissed it, that is how shut it was. But when I needed to do it once more, I might. That’s simply the kind of particular person I’m. Loyalty is without doubt one of the Army values. You’ve gotten that in sports activities as properly, the entire crew idea. You don’t need to be the rationale why the opposite crew scored a landing and also you misplaced the sport. In struggle or fight, you don’t need to be the rationale why your teammates are shot or killed.”
The Special Forces motto is “De Oppreso Liber” which interprets from Latin as “to free the oppressed.”
“That is really what I felt we have been doing over there,” stated Gonzalez. “They have been being oppressed by the Taliban and all these enemy people and also you simply know harmless individuals are being killed once they have been simply attempting to reside their lives. Within the states, you see children operating round and also you see the youngsters in Afghanistan, they will’t even be children as a result of they’re being oppressed. It makes you respect it extra whenever you come again to the states, so that you hug your children a little bit tighter and a little bit longer and also you inform them you like them.”
Gonzalez had one other brush with loss of life in 2013 when he obtained information that his son, serving within the Army himself as a fight medic specialist, has been injured in fight and virtually died in Afghanistan.
“I actually couldn’t transfer once I obtained that decision, “stated Gonzalez. “I used to be paralyzed and scared for my son however thank God he ultimately recovered.”
As he approaches 30 years in uniform, there may be one other occasion in his profession that continues to form him to at the present time. One he should maintain again tears when speaking about.
“There was a man, Travis, who was on my crew, only a good particular person and his mother and father are lovely human beings, and Travis was killed in Afghanistan by an improvised explosive gadget on a deployment earlier than the one I obtained the Silver Star for,” he stated. “After I made the rank of grasp sergeant after which I used to be a crew sergeant, I instructed myself that when you’re on my crew, nobody goes to die on my watch. After we got here again from Afghanistan, the wives thanked me for bringing their husbands dwelling.”
Gonzalez added that Travis Hunsberger was an “18E,” a Special Forces Communications Sergeant on ODA 732, and he’s the actual hero.
“He sacrificed all of it,” stated Gonzalez. “Some gave some, however he gave all. He’s the hero together with all of our fallen heroes. I’m no hero in comparison with them.”
His two-decade-plus army profession has gone full circle as he completed out his undergraduate diploma serving an internship at america Penitentiary, Leavenworth. As of late, Gonzalez is the operations sergeant main for MCTP. He oversees administrative necessities for Troopers within the unit, not a fight position however nonetheless ensuring Troopers and their households are taken care of.
“I met a variety of nice folks on this enterprise and if I used to be to alter any of it, I might by no means have met these nice folks as a result of the great people who I’ve met outweigh the unhealthy.”
He credit his mother and father and his spouse Alyson for supporting him via the highs and lows.
“I’ve to thank my mother and father for sacrificing the whole lot for us and elevating us with love and self-discipline,” stated Gonzalez. “They inspired us to at all times try to do higher and provides it 100% each time. All the time respect others and particularly your elders. I’m the oldest of 4 boys and all of us are doing properly due to our mother and father.”
“My spouse Alyson has been my bedrock and help pillar. She is a college counselor at Edgerton (Kansas) Elementary and I assume she tends to provide me some counseling every so often. We each graduated from Kansas State and love being alumni and persevering with to help the varsity.”
Gonzalez was honored earlier than a September 2022 soccer sport on the college. He was awarded the Medal of Navy Excellence and a President Emeritus Myers coin. The college’s president, Dr. Richard Linton, introduced the awards to Gonzalez to acknowledge his Army profession.
“I have been most happy with what Tony has achieved since leaving Kansas State College and getting invested within the service, and it simply goes alongside along with his nature and eager to do what is true and supply steerage for his fellow teammates and his nation,” stated coach Snyder in an interview earlier than the sport.
