WASHINGTON — His mother says Army Spec. James Brossoie has always been "very passionate about honor," so she's not surprised he's one of 15 soldiers awarded the Bronze Star for valor in Afghanistan.
"He always wanted to make a difference," Maude Brossoie said. "When he went into the military, he wanted to do something important, and he has."
So far, the Army has awarded 160 medals honoring soldiers serving during the war in Afghanistan. The campaign began Oct. 7 and involves more than 5,000 Americans on the ground in the Central Asian nation.
The medal count is small compared with the 117,235 medals awarded during the 1991 Gulf War, which lasted just six weeks with some 500,000 U.S. soldiers. Those awards included 75 Silver Stars, 891 Bronze Stars for valor and 27,076 Bronze Stars for other meritorious service.
Brossoie and two other soldiers earned Bronze Star for valor awards for their actions during Operation Anaconda, the drive to surround and eliminate a group of al-Qaida fighters in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Maude Brossoie said she got a phone call from her son Monday after she saw an Associated Press story mentioning his award.
"He didn't want to tell me what he did," said Brossoie, who lives in Falls Church, Va. "He said he'd tell me when he saw me."
Besides the 15 Bronze Stars for valor, another 103 Bronze Star medals have been awarded for distinguished service in Afghanistan.
Three soldiers have been posthumously honored with the Silver Star — the third-highest U.S. military honor for heroism. One was the first soldier killed in Operation Anaconda, Chief Warrant Officer Stanley L. Harriman, who died March 2.
The other two Silver Stars were awarded to Green Berets killed by an errant U.S. bomb in a "friendly fire" incident north of Kandahar Dec. 5: Master Sgt. Jefferson Davis and Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Petithory.
The other soldier killed by that 2,000-pound bomb and eight of the Special Forces wounded received the Bronze Star. Four commandos injured in an earlier "friendly fire" incident in Mazar-i-Sharif also received Bronze Stars.
Those two friendly fire incidents accounted for 22 of the 32 Purple Heart medals awarded to those wounded or killed during the Afghanistan campaign before Operation Anaconda started March 2. After an awards ceremony in January, one of the soldiers wounded in the Dec. 5 bombing said, "It's pretty bad when you get a Purple Heart from friendly fire."
"I mean, we're going to accept the Purple Heart, we deserve a Purple Heart, but it would be a lot better if it was from enemy fire instead of friendly fire," said Sgt. 1st Class Ronnie Raikes of Richmond, Va., after the awards ceremony.
The Army also has awarded six Distinguished Flying Crosses, which honor airborne actions of heroism or extraordinary achievement above and beyond the call of duty. Also awarded were 25 Air Medals, for lesser heroism or meritorious service by air crews.
Each military service branch awards medals separately. Usually, a unit's commanding officer recommends the citation, which must be approved by higher-ranking officers up the chain of command.
The Army is the only service to distribute medals other than Purple Hearts so far, although the Marines have several requests pending, spokesmen said.
The Air Force has put a freeze on awarding medals for Operation Enduring Freedom, spokeswoman Jennifer Stephens said.
"The commanders put a hold on medals to ensure there are consistent and appropriate regulations," Stephens said.