 Our mission was to conduct a hostage rescue raid on October 22, 2015 in Hulijar, Iraq. The Kurdish regional government reached out to the United States for assistance for a hostage rescue raid. For this mission, I was the assistant team leader. My team was responsible for one of the buildings that the hostages were being held in. What was significant is that there were freshly dug graves, and if we didn't action this target, then the hostages would probably be executed. At that point, it was our duty to bring those men home. That's when you make that transition from soldier to warrior. That's when no all-joking stops, and that's when you do your last-minute checks, and that's when it's game time. Ramp drops. It's a complete brownout. Part of the compound was already in a pretty intense firefight. As we maneuvered to our building, we throw up the ladders. Mother, part of my team, maneuvers to their block position. That's when we hear that there was a man down, and it was Matt Starr and Josh Wheeler. That's when one of my teammates looked him right in the eye and said, follow me. We cut the locks in the prison doors and opened the cell, and there were about 25 hostages in one cell, and probably 11 in the other. We see their faces light up, and they're being liberated. Some are crying, some are excited, and while this is going on, there's still an intense firefight going on in the other building. You can see the flames, you hear all the explosions going on. Here on the radio, an urgent call for assistance, and that's when I looked at a teammate and told him, hey, let's get into fighting. I said, let's go. And when we're on the roof, the enemy is right below us. The smoke kind of repelled us from window break down. And that's when they're yelling at us, and we're yelling at them, and we're employing small arms and hand grenades on the enemy combatants below. And that's when you hear suicide bombers initiating their suicide vests right below us and shaking the rooftop. And once you're able to control your fear, that's the bridge to personal courage, and personal courage is contagious on the battlefield. One of the teams was holding down the breach point all the way down to the last magazine. Bullets were passing through the uniforms and peeking the breach, and I see the same prison door that was on the other building. I call for a set of bolt cutters, and I'm starting by just like, hey, I got you. They're beginning engaging the enemy combatants in the back room. There's a small foyer that I was able to maneuver into and cut the top lock. I took the bolt cutters back from him. It's difficult to breathe. The smoke pouring out, it's hot. I was able to cut that bottom lock, and I bumped out and tell him, hey, CQB, CQB, close course battle. That's when we hear that the building is starting to collapse. So the building is starting to collapse. We're getting shot at. It's on fire, and we have hostages inside. It was a mandatory evacuation call. So my sergeant major is pulling the guys from one of the rooms, and I'm like a third base coach. Wave them, wave them through the initial breach point. That snatch ice is flag off the wall, stuffing my pocket. I see that the train of hostages had stopped. So I grabbed one of the hostages and moved through the breach point to get the train of hostages going. I went back into the building and noticed that one of the hostages had given up on, basically given up on life. So he was over 200 pounds, a big fella, and so I basically grabbed him by the back of the collar and drugged him through the breach point. At that point, then I ran back in for one last check. Then my sergeant major told me that, hey, you can get him out of the building. So basically made a human wall and to allow the hostages to pass behind us. And as we gauged the other building, we had to cease fire so the hostages could run behind us because they would stop. Our sergeant major pulls us in, and he informed us that Master Sergeant Josh Wheeler had been killed in action. That's when our teammates tell us what Josh Wheeler did that day. His last words before he moved to the sound of the guns were, on me. You know, the Medal of Honor represents everything great about our country. And for me, I don't consider myself a recipient of this medal. I consider myself a guardian of this medal. And what's important for me is that my teammates' legacies will live on with this Medal of Honor.