Medal wasn't on Oak Harbor soldier's mind when saving 2 comrades

Even though he braved enemy fire to help save the lives of two Army comrades in Iraq, 1st Lt. Bryan Jackson of Oak Harbor isn't comfortable being called a hero.

"You sign up to fight, and you do what you have to do to make sure everybody comes home," Jackson, 24, said Thursday. "It's not like you go over there to win medals."

But Jackson's willingness to put his own life on the line has earned him the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism in action, the military's second-highest honor. Jackson is only the seventh person since the end of the Vietnam War to receive the award. It was presented at a ceremony earlier this month by Army Secretary Pete Geren.

Jackson knew he and his fellow soldiers were in a difficult spot when their Humvee became stuck in mud in the city of Hit in Iraq's Anbar province Sept. 27, 2006.

"We had another soldier seriously injured at that same intersection a month earlier," Jackson said in a telephone interview from his parents' home outside Washington, D.C. "I knew it was a dangerous place to be." Several two- and three-story buildings close by provided ample vantage points for insurgents.

Two soldiers hit

Jackson's concern was warranted. As soldiers attempted to free the Humvee, machine-gun fire erupted and two members of Jackson's unit were hit — his commanding officer, Capt. Eric Stainbrook, of Spokane, and 1st Sgt. David Sapp, of Georgia.

Jackson rushed to aid Sapp, who appeared to be the most seriously hurt, as other soldiers used automatic rifles and a cannon on a Bradley Fighting Vehicle to fight back.

"The sound of gunfire was drowning everything out," Jackson recalled. "I could hear the two guys yelling in pain, and besides that, all I could hear was gunfire."

As he began first aid on Sapp, who was injured in the leg, shoulder and head, Jackson himself was shot in the thigh and hand. "We were out in the open in an exposed position," Jackson said. "I knew I needed to return fire. I got back up and I fired off about 30 rounds."

Jackson was shot again as he helped carry Sapp toward cover. Soldiers eventually succeeded in getting both Sapp and Stainbrook, bleeding heavily from a severed leg artery, to safer ground.

A dozen surgeries

As a result of his injuries, Jackson has needed at least a dozen surgeries and spent much of the last year at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He needed a wheelchair for three months. But now he can run again, and he is regaining grip strength in his injured hand.

Jackson said he feels satisfaction about what happened that day in Iraq. But that's not about his own deeds as much as the fact that everyone in his unit, working together, made it out alive. In the ensuing military operation, more than 60 insurgents were rounded up.

And Jackson said he believes the actions of his unit and other U.S. troops in the area contributed to making Anbar more stable today than it was a year ago, with Iraqi police and Iraqi military playing a greater role in its security.

Jackson, who graduated from Oak Harbor High School in 2001 and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2005, will spend Thanksgiving with a sister in Seattle and then head to an assignment in Korea. After that, he hopes to attend law school and pursue a career as a military lawyer.

His reluctance to claim the title "hero" comes as no surprise to one of the men he helped save.

Stainbrook, 31, had this to say Thursday about his fellow officer: "He's just a great solider and a great guy, and I think that's enough for him. He has always been a guy to put the team first."

And Jackson's father, Navy Capt. Walt Jackson, with the Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C., said, "You never really know how someone is going to react in combat, and most people never get tested. All you can do is hope that people do their best. And on that day he did his best."

Jack Broom: 206-464-2222 or jbroom@seattletimes.com