MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- Huge explosions went off around them as they were attacked by two separate vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices June 10, 2005, injuring two Marines and a Navy corpsman.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Gilberto M. Rocha, a Navy corpsman with Company B, 2d Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, was awarded a Bronze Star Medal with combat distinguishing device Jan. 20 for his heroic actions when he ignored his own shrapnel wounds to care for the other two injured Marines.
“It was an honor to get this award from a general,” explained the Yokosuka, Japan native, who was presented the medal by Brig. Gen. Joseph J. McMenamin, assistant 2nd Marine Division commander.
Rocha, 20, who grew up on Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, is familiar to the naval traditions of working hand-in-hand with the Marine Corps. For Rocha, his time was in combat, facing the dangers the enemy had thrown their way in the form of IED attacks.
After the attack, Rocha had sustained shrapnel wounds to his leg, neck and foot. He began the treatment of the other wounded Marines before he thought of tending to his own injuries.
“This was my first deployment, and I had only been out into the fleet for about three months before we left for Iraq,” Rocha explained.
Many Marines and sailors have been coming right out of training and going to Iraq to replace their brothers-in-arms. Rocha was another one of the sailors who only had his field medical school training when he took his first steps into the combat zone.
“I gained a lot of training I hadn’t gotten the chance to receive back home,” Rocha explained. “I liked working with my platoon, because they gave me the chance to learn more.”
In the face of danger, his training took over as he demonstrated great courage, initiative and selfless actions. For his actions he suspected he would get an award, but not one as prestigious as this.
“I thought it was going to be something lower, but when I found out about what I was getting, I was very surprised,” Rocha explained.
Rocha left home as a young, junior sailor and has returned a war-hardened hero who offered two Marine Corps families the chance to see their sons once more.