Drill instructor to be awarded Silver Star - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Drill instructor to be awarded Silver Star

The Marine Corps will award the Silver Star medal on Friday to a sergeant who led his infantry squad through a six-hour firefight in Afghanistan’s Sangin district last year.

Sgt. Philip A. McCulloch Jr., a native of Tucson, Ariz., who was raised in Galveston, Texas, will receive the medal during a morning colors ceremony at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. The Silver Star is the nation’s third highest award for gallantry in combat.

McCulloch, now a drill instructor with 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, was leading his squad with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, when it came under attack on Jan. 8, 2011.

It wasn’t long before McCulloch took point and led the squad in the attack. At one point, he fired an AT-4 anti-armor rocket at an enemy fighting position.

“He pursued the enemy into a nearby row of compounds and forced them into fixed positions where many were destroyed by close-air support and indirect fires, combined with maneuver,” the award citation states. The sergeant kept “constant pressure” on the fighters as support aircraft refueled and resupplied, and he continued to lead his men.

The pitched battle with Taliban fighters expended much of the squad’s ammunition supply. But McCulloch “aggressively drove his Marines to remain focused” and braved enemy fire to identify enemy positions and coordinate fires, the citation states.

“Even after beginning to return to base, as the enemy again engaged the Marines, he controlled another section of helicopters with devastating effects, allowing his squad to return to friendly lines.”

It wasn’t until after the dust settled when McCulloch, wounded in the leg, returned to friendly lines.