Marine Raider veteran receives second highest valor award for Iraq fight
By Philip Athey
Sep 3, 12:57 PM
CAMP LEJEUNE, North Carolina ― A former Marine staff sergeant received the Navy Cross on Aug. 26 for his 2020 heroic actions that saved the life of one French special operator and attempted to save, then recover the bodies of two Marine Raiders while fighting ISIS in northern Iraq.
Marine veteran Nicholas J. Jones, 29, of Olathe, Kansas, then an element leader from 2nd Raider Battalion, was working with allied special operators and Iraqi security forces to clear caves systems of enemy fighters when a neighboring unit came under heavy fire.
“Sunday, March 8, 2020 was a warm sunny day in northern Iraq, and among the beauty was erratic gunfire and explosions echoing through the deep valleys,” Jones said Thursday from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, after receiving the nation’s second highest award for valor.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2021/09/03/marine-raider-veteran-receives-second-highest-valor-award-for-iraq-fight/
