Yesterday, the entire Troop got together for an Awards Ceremony Dinner. I was one of several awarded the Army Commendation Medal. This stands as my first military award (if you don't count the Brigade Achievement Coin that I found in the trash a few years back). I received the award for my actions during a training accident a while back. Some of you might recall a little incident I was involved in back in Louisiana which resulted in a barbequed Humvee (story here, photo here). For my part I half expected some sort of reprimand, so a medal was a nice surprise. Now I've got something dangly to pin to my Class A uniform. The award recommendation form read as follows:

During a brush fire that engulfed one of 2nd platoon’s trucks, SPC Coon risked serious injury to himself in order to remove vital sensitive equipment from the burning vehicle without regard to his own personal safety. Through SPC Coon’s actions 2nd platoon remained combat ready with zero loss of sensitive equipment.