Warfare hero recounts lives saved in Afghanistan | Article

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 an ardent believer within the Army values and by all definition, a struggle hero. His actions in Afghanistan in 2007 would outcome within the Silver Star, the third-highest award for valor within the U.S. Army.

Gonzalez grew up in Boyel Heights in East Los Angeles, an space identified for drug and gang wars and in addition excessive unemployment.

“Regardless of what was taking place the place I grew up, I met some excellent buddies at Bishop Mora Salesian Excessive Faculty,” stated Gonzalez. “I graduated in 1987 and to this present day, I nonetheless be in contact with them. That’s the loyalty we’ve inside that bond.”

Sports activities had been additionally an escape for him.

“I grew up loving the Raiders, Dodgers, Magic Johnson and the [Showtime-era] Lakers, Kirk Gibson hitting that residence 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 taking part in for Invoice Snyder, who received greater than 200 video games in his faculty soccer teaching profession.

After his taking part in days ended and he earned his faculty diploma in 1994, Gonzalez walked into an Army recruiter’s workplace in 1996, following by means of on his want since childhood to serve within the army.

“The recruiter was just a little shocked once I walked in,” stated Gonzalez. “I used to be like ‘you don’t have to provide me an entire speech, you don’t should 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, taking pictures 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 working from the police.

“I had grown up in a group the place a number of of us 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 Fort Campbell, Kentucky, his first obligation station. Six years later he went to check out for Special Forces, ultimately joined the seventh Special Forces Group out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Now a member of the Inexperienced Berets, Gonzalez educated, 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. He and the others had been ambushed by Taliban fighters following a routine patrol within the Uruzgan Province. All through the struggle, he uncovered himself to Taliban snipers and machine gunners thrice, ultimately saving the lives of 4 Afghan safety forces that had been trapped. Gonzalez nearly 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’d. That’s simply the kind of individual I’m. Loyalty is likely one of the Army values. You’ve that in sports activities as effectively, the entire staff idea. You don’t need to be the explanation why the opposite staff scored a landing and also you misplaced the sport. In struggle or fight, you don’t need to be the explanation 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 had been doing over there,” stated Gonzalez. “They had been being oppressed by the Taliban and all these enemy of us and also you simply know harmless individuals are being killed once they had been simply attempting to stay their lives. Within the states, you see children working round and also you see the children in Afghanistan, they’ll’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 just a little tighter and just a little 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 nearly 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 this present day. One he should maintain again tears when speaking about.

“There was a man, Travis, who was on my staff, only a good individual and his dad and mom are stunning human beings, and Travis was killed in Afghanistan by an improvised explosive system 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 staff sergeant, I informed myself that in the event you’re on my staff, nobody goes to die on my watch. After we got here again from Afghanistan, the wives thanked me for bringing their husbands residence.”

Gonzalez added that Travis Hunsberger was an “18E,” a Special Forces Communications Sergeant on ODA 732, and he’s the true 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.”

Gonzalez’s two-decade-plus army profession has gone full circle as he completed out his undergraduate diploma serving an internship at america Penitentiary, Leavenworth. Nowadays, Gonzalez is the operations sergeant main for Mission Command Coaching Program. 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 number of nice individuals on this enterprise and if I used to be to alter any of it, I’d by no means have met these nice individuals as a result of the nice people who I’ve met outweigh the unhealthy.”

He credit his dad and mom and his spouse Alyson for supporting him by means of the highs and lows.

“I’ve to thank my dad and mom for sacrificing every thing for us and elevating us with love and self-discipline,” stated Gonzalez. “They inspired us to at all times attempt 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 effectively due to our dad and mom.”

“My spouse Alyson has been my bedrock and help pillar. She is a faculty counselor at Edgerton Elementary and I assume she tends to provide me some counseling every now and then. We each graduated from Kansas State and love being alumni and persevering with to help the college.”

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 executed since leaving Kansas State College and getting invested within the service, and it simply goes alongside together with his nature and eager to do what is correct and supply steerage for his fellow teammates and his nation,” stated coach Snyder in an interview earlier than the sport.