"Fabayo was born in Nigeria but considers himself a New Yorker"
Capt. Ademola Fabayo and Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez are both immigrants to the United States, both Marines and, most important of all, both heroes of a rare order.
On Friday, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus presented both men with the Navy Cross during a ceremony at the National Museum of the Marine Corps. The Navy Cross is the second-highest award for valor in the military, surpassed only by the Medal of Honor.
They were on a mission with two platoons of Afghan troops and some other U.S. Marine and Army trainers to meet village elders in Ganjgal, Afghanistan, on September 8, 2009. They knew the village was in a dangerous valley.
"The valley, which is located very close to the Pakistani border, is a known approach route for insurgents," Mabus said at Friday's awards ceremony.
Their fears were realized when some 50 Taliban fighters attacked their column.
"As that column approached the village, just before sunrise, every light in the village went off. And minutes later the world became fire," Mabus said. "From three sides of the column, over a distance of two-thirds of a mile on either side, rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire began to rain down."
Source: CNN
Read the rest of their Heroic act here
