Former Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class (FMF/SW) Jonathan Kong waited nearly four years for his first firefight. When it finally happened, his actions that day led to a Silver Star.
After a Marine collapsed from gunshot wounds at the start of a four-hour battle in Afghanistan's deadly Sangin district in 2011 — their squad's first enemy contact — Kong, then an HM3, rushed into the hail of bullets to pull Cpl. Michael Dawers out of the kill zone.
Kong received the military's third-highest award for valor during a Sept. 19 ceremony at Camp Pendleton, California.
Kong's unit, 2nd Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, had been in country for three months without enemy contact, he said, and they were starting to wonder if they'd ever see real combat.
The fighting season was just kicking off, Kong recalled in a Sept. 17 phone interview, when his squad headed out to the village of Kotozay on June 13 to clear a known Taliban stronghold.
"They kept telling us, 'It's going to happen, it's going to happen,' " Kong recalled.
Two hours into the four-day operation, locals approached to warn them of the Taliban. Suddenly, bullets were flying overhead and the Marine in front of him was down on the ground.
"When Dawers got hit, it was so real, instantly," Kong recalled. "The Taliban, until this point, were these mythical creatures that we'd never encountered."
Kong took action immediately. According to his citation, he ran toward the Marine, returned fire on the enemy positions, then braved a hail of bullets to drag the wounded Marine 15 meters to pack the gunshot wound to his chest.
"I think as a corpsman, it's always in the back of your head. You're trained, and you're so ready to do this, and you think about that moment all the time," he said. "Ideally, I don't ever have to do my job."
It wasn't until they got back to Patrol Base Nevada that he had time to take stock of what had happened.
"It's not that scary until afterward, when you sit there and think about it and you're like, 'Oh man — I could've died,' " he said.
Kong joined the Navy in 2007, picking the corpsman rating because he knew it could get him closer to the action. He spent his first deployment with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, cruising the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf.
When he reported to 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton in early 2011, he said, he was more than ready to go. Two months later he was in Afghanistan.
"I always joke that I know more about the Marine Corps — weapons tactics, fire team maneuvers — than I do about ships," he said.
The 25-year-old admitted that being a Silver Star hero is still sinking in.
"It's not a conversation starter," he said. "It's not like, 'Hey, my name's Jon, I'm getting a Silver Star.' "
Kong left the Navy a year ago and returned home to Milpitas, California, where he's studying pre-medicine at a local community college. He remains on inactive reserve for the next year, he said.
He said things might change once he works his way to medical school, but for now, he plans to take his experience into the civilian world as an emergency room doctor.
Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. She covers operations, policy, personnel, leadership and other issues affecting service members.
