do medal of honor recipients get back pay

'Two other insurgents who were trying to come to their comrade’s rescue, fired at Bellavia, but he had slipped out of the room, which was now full of smoke and fire.'Ī final insurgent dropped from the third story to the second-story roof. In the wild scuffle that followed, Sergeant Bellavia took out his knife and slit the Jihadist’s throat,” the Silver Star citation reads. “The wounded Jihadist then bit Sergeant Bellavia on the arm and smacked him in the face with the butt of his AK-47. Two more insurgents began yelling from the third story of the building. Hearing the wounded insurgent inside, he threw a fragmentary grenade into the room, which caused the insurgent to flee to the roof. Sergeant Bellavia pursued, but slipped on the blood-soaked stairs.'īellavia followed the bloody tracks of the insurgent up the stairs to a room on his left. 'Another insurgent was yelling from upstairs, and the wounded Jihadist escaped the bedroom and ran upstairs. As the man leaped over the bed he tripped and Sergeant Bellavia shot him several times, wounding but not killing him,” the citation reads. “At that point, a Jihadist hiding in a wardrobe in a bedroom jumped out, firing wildly around the room and knocking over the wardrobe. Bellavia was then shot at by another insurgent upstairs and the staff sergeant returned the fire, killing him as well. (Army)īellavia then entered the uncleared master bedroom and emptied gunfire into all the corners, at which point the wounded insurgent entered the room, yelling and firing his weapon, the citation reads. A third insurgent then began yelling from the second floor.Ĭache of weapons confiscated in Fallujah by Staff Sgt. A second enemy fighter began firing as he ran toward the kitchen and Bellavia fired back, wounding him in the shoulder. Upon entering, Bellavia gunned down one insurgent who was loading an RPG launcher. Bellavia then went back to the street and called in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle to shell the houses before re-entering the building to assess the scene. Other insurgents on the rooftop of the building began firing on his squad below, forcing them to seek cover in a nearby building. Bellavia switched out his M16 rifle for an M249 SAW gun and entered one room where the insurgents were located to spray it with gunfire, forcing the Jihadists to take cover and allowing the squad to move out into the street. The ensuing gun battle injured several soldiers. When Bellavia and four others entered the 10th building, they came under fire from insurgents in the house, according to his Silver Star citation.

The first nine buildings were found to be unoccupied, but were filled with rockets, grenade launchers and other weapons.

Do medal of honor recipients get back pay