Hometown Hero
After the ceremony, Staff Sergeant Earl Covel gave his medal to his son, Connor.
patrick sherman / clackamas review
In a ceremony marked by all the pomp and honors of military service, and with his family looking on, Air Force Staff Sergeant Earl I. Covel of Oregon City was awarded the Silver Star at McChord Air Force Base on Friday.
An Iraq combat veteran, Coval was honored for his courage during a 36-hour battle that pitted him and a small team of elite Army troops against an overwhelming force of insurgents. Col. Eric Schnitzer began by describing the medal, which is awarded at the direction of the president.
“This is the fourth highest award given by the United States armed forces, and the third highest award given for valor in the face of the enemy,” said Schnitzer. “In that hierarchy, it falls below the Congressional Medal of Honor and the service crosses.
“It is awarded for gallantry, described as heroism in the highest degree, to include the risk of life, and said gallantry must be performed with marked distinction.”
Schnitzer spoke in a hall draped with the flags of all 50 states to a mixed group of more than 200 military personnel and civilians: officers in flight suits, Army and Air Force troops in woodland camouflage. Oregon City’s mayor, Alice Norris, sat in the front row next to Coval’s wife and young son.
Called to the stage, Norris offered her own brief remarks: “In these troubled times, it is so inspiring to remember that bravery, valor, honor and excellence still exist in abundance.
“We don’t have too many true hometown heroes that we can recognize. I just want to say thank you and congratulations – we’re all very proud of you.”
The honor of presenting the award itself fell to Brigadier General Benjamin Bartlett from Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.
“This honor speaks for itself,” he said. “Its importance cannot be overstated. I’ve been in the service for 31 years, and I’ve never seen a Silver Star presentation. What he did over there was beyond heroic. Heroes are those people who are put into a position where there true inner character comes out when it is needed most.”
For Coval, that day was June 18, 2004 – at a safe house in an undisclosed Iraqi city. As a tactical air controller, he was assigned to a team of eight Army special forces soldiers working with the peshmerga – indigenous Kurdish fighters.
When the safe house came under sustained attack, Covel made his way towards the enemy fire, climbing to the top of an adjoining tower so that he could spot the enemy.
“I set up my radios and requested air support,” he said. “I figured that if I was in front, then all of my guys would be behind me – so there wouldn’t be the risk of them being hit by our planes.”
Another soldier, his identity still a military secret, climbed the tower with Covel carrying a machinegun.
“He would lay down fire so that I could pop my head up and get a look,” said Covel. “Then they got a machinegun on us and we started taking pretty accurate fire.”
A sniper who climbed onto the roof to support Covel and the machinegunner was wounded – his ear literally shot off the side of his head. The other soldier carried the injured man to safety, leaving the machinegun to Coval.
In the skies above, a fearsome armada of U.S. strike aircraft began to orbit, waiting for Covel’s instructions to release their deadly payload. The first to arrive were a pair of Navy F-18 jets.
“I called in the strike danger close,” he said – close enough that he himself could be injured or killed by the blast. “When they were directly overhead, I couldn’t hear anything it was so loud, and my ears were ringing from when they kicked in their afterburners to get out of there.”
The battle raged for a day and a half, with Covel coordinating air attacks, using his own rifle to defend himself and his team, and serving as an air traffic controller – keeping the pilots overhead from colliding while waiting for the order to strike.
“Through all that, nobody on his team was killed,” said General Bartlett. “I don’t say this lightly because we are speaking of humanity here, but they took out between 120 and 150 enemies who were trying to kill them.”
The recommendation that Covel receive an award for his actions came not from the Air Force, but from the Army team that he had seen safely through the battle.
“When they told me, I thought they were kidding,” said Covel. “I thought it was a joke. I was embarrassed that they would put me in for the Silver Star.
“I don’t feel that I did anything different than anyone else in that same situation would have done. Any of the other guys who do my job would have done the same thing.”