Positivity: Marine awarded Silver Star for bravery, life-saving acts

From Camp Pendleton, near San Diego, California:

7:11 p.m. March 28, 2008

In all probability, Marine Sgt. Randy Roedema never would have met his daughter if not for another man’s bravery.

Roedema’s platoon – part of a quick-reaction force – was on patrol in the Iraqi desert south of Rawah on Aug. 2, 2007, when insurgents ambushed it with a hail of automatic weapons fire. Roedema, 25, was shot twice and collapsed to the ground.

A Marine tried to rescue him and was killed in the process, he recalled Friday. Then Lance Cpl. Moses Cardenas rushed to Roedema’s aid, dragging him 100 yards to safety while shooting at the insurgents. Cardenas suffered two bullet wounds in the process.

Roedema’s first child, Juliannah, was born just days after the ambush, and Roedema credits Cardenas with giving the girl a chance to have a father.

He gave the testimonial during a ceremony at Camp Pendleton in which Cardenas received the Silver Star, the military’s third-highest honor for combat valor.

Marine commanders awarded Cardenas the medal for his efforts to rescue Roedema.

Cardenas said he knew he had been shot, but didn’t really feel the pain until minutes after the rounds had stopped and all the insurgents were dead.

“It didn’t really register how dangerous it was with all the adrenaline going,” said Cardenas, 20, of Fullerton. “It’s either you kill them or they kill you.”

Cardenas and fellow members of his platoon now wear wrist bands engraved with the name of the Marine who was killed that day: Lance Cpl. Cristian Vasquez, 20.

Among the people who came Friday to congratulate Cardenas were his parents and his sister. Cardenas cried briefly as he introduced his family to some of his fellow Marines after the ceremony.

His platoon mates patted him on the back, shook his hand and offered praises such as “Oorah!” and “Good job, devil. We’re all proud of you.”

The Marine Corps’ citation notes that Cardenas “left his safe position behind a vehicle and fought his way across 50 meters of fire-swept, open desert against five armed insurgents to rescue the fallen Marine.”

“After sustaining a gunshot wound to the neck that knocked him to the ground. . . . Cardenas tenaciously rose to his feet, calmly reloaded his squad automatic weapon and continued his assault until he reached the wounded Marine.”

Roedema said Cardenas essentially shielded him with his own body.

Cardenas was on his first combat tour of Iraq at the time, and he will return there for a second tour in September. His enlistment with the Marine Corps will expire in two years, but he intends to re-enlist and remain in the service “until they kick me out,” he said. …..

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