On November 11, 2004, during the Second Battle of Fallujah, Marine Corps Sergeant Aubrey McDade Jr. was serving as a Machine Gun Squad Leader with Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, 1st Marine Division.

Moments after entering a narrow alley, his platoon was ambushed by intense small-arms and machine-gun fire. In the opening seconds, three Marines were critically wounded and pinned down in a deadly kill zone.

Without hesitation, Sgt McDade rushed forward and deployed a machine gun team to suppress the enemy. When repeated attempts to reach the wounded failed, he ran directly through the heart of the kill zone—extracting one Marine under heavy fire.

Then he did it again.

And again.

Three times he crossed that alley under relentless enemy fire to pull his fellow Marines to safety. Afterward, he helped treat and evacuate the wounded.

His courage and decisive leadership saved lives in one of the fiercest urban battles of the Iraq War.

For extraordinary heroism in combat, Aubrey McDade Jr. was awarded the Navy Cross.

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