Oil Terminal Attack: Coast Guardsman Earns Valor During the Iraq War

11/14/22 • 34 min

In April 2004, Joe Ruggiero was a petty officer serving with a Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment aboard the Navy’s USS Firebolt in the Persian Gulf. Ruggiero and a team of Coast Guardsmen and sailors were conducting a boarding operation near an oil terminal when the boat they were intercepting detonated in an apparent suicide bombing, killing two sailors and one Coast Guardsman. For his actions that day, Ruggiero, now a Chief Warrant Officer 2, became the first Coast Guardsman since the Vietnam War to earn a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star with V.

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Marine and Author Elliot Ackerman: On America's End in Afghanistan

As Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021, Elliot Ackerman, a former Marine Corps infantry officer and MARSOC team leader, found himself in the middle of an unofficial evacuation effort to help Afghan allies escape the country. Ackerman, a Silver Star recipient and author, wrote about the effort and his experiences in Afghanistan in his latest book, "The Fifth Act: America's End in Afghanistan."

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Maj. Brian Cillessen: "We fought hard on this day."

In this episode of the Never Stop Serving podcast, host Lt. Col. Olivia Nunn, USA (Ret), speaks with Maj. Brian Cillessen, USMC (Ret). In January 2005 then-Capt. Cillessen was attached to a Special Forces ODA as an embedded trainer and Marine adviser for Afghan National Army commandos. While returning from a mission, his convoy was ambushed. Cillessen, now a television producer and host on The Sportsman Channel, details the actions in this battle that earned him the Silver Star.