Peninsula Daily News
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TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. — A young Marine from Port Angeles who trained at the base in Twentynine Palms was awarded the Navy Cross — the second-highest military honor — on Friday for a death-defying firefight and hand-to-hand combat with a band of Taliban fighters.
Sgt. Clifford Wooldridge, 23, stood solemnly in the afternoon heat during a ceremony at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms. He was joined by Robert O. Work, the undersecretary of the Navy, who lauded him for acting “selflessly and bravely when it most counted.”
Wooldridge is the 31st Marine to receive the award for valor during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
His quiet and understated response revealed nothing of the battle that left his fellow Marines in awe, and created a story that reads like a Hollywood script.
Wooldridge was three years into his enlistment and had already done a tour in Iraq when he was assigned to the Musa Qala district of Afghanistan’s Helmand province.
While on patrol on the afternoon of June 18, 2010, Wooldridge, then a corporal, and his unit came under heavy enemy fire. He ordered his fellow Marines out of their vehicles, and they made their way toward the fight, Work recalled.
The four-man team outflanked 15 Taliban insurgents who were preparing to attack the rest of the Marine patrol. Wooldridge’s unit opened fire with automatic weapons, killing or wounding eight of the fighters. The rest scattered.
“He ambushed the ambush,” Work said.
As Wooldridge covered his retreating fire team he heard voices from beyond a nearby wall. Rounding the wall, he confronted two Taliban and shot them dead.
His gun was empty and, as he crouched to reload, the barrel of a Taliban machine gun appeared around the corner of the wall, Wooldridge said.
“I honestly figured since I was out of ammo and he had a machine gun, I thought I was going out without a fight,” Wooldridge said.
Instead, he grabbed the gun and pulled his enemy around the corner with it. As they fought hand-to-hand, the Taliban fighter tried to pull the pin on a grenade to kill them both.
Wooldridge used the wooden stock of the enemy fighter’s gun to bash him in the head.
“He overcame his enemy and literally clubbed him to death,” Work said. “I get goosebumps every time I read this citation.”
Minutes after the fight, Wooldridge emerged from behind the wall and calmly told his unit to “mount up,” said Ronnie Alexander, a former Marine and military law enforcement contractor who witnessed the fighting that day.
Later, Alexander, Wooldridge and his unit dined on Warrior Stew, a mix of ramen noodles, Spam and cheesy spread in a metal cup, passed among the men.
When the unit took a break in Afghanistan later that month, Capt. Joe Fontanetta, the battalion commander, reviewed a recommendation from Wooldridge’s platoon leader — for a Bronze Star.
“I looked at it and said, ‘Did this really happen?’ My jaw dropped. I asked (Cliff), ‘Did you really freaking do this?’”
As the award submission wound its way through the military’s upper echelons, it was bumped up to a Silver Star and finally, the Navy Cross, he said.
“It was instinct,” Fontanetta said of Wooldridge’s actions. “It wasn’t him choosing to do something great. It was natural for him to do something heroic.”
Two weeks after the fight with the Taliban, Wooldridge called his mother, Tammy, at home in Port Angeles. He told her he was probably getting an award. When she asked what for, he replied simply: “For some stuff I did.”
At Friday’s ceremony, Wooldridge’s mother was joined by his father, Guy, his brother, grandmother and aunts and uncles, the Riverside Press Enterprise reported on www.pe.com.
“I count my blessings every day that he came home,” Tammy Wooldridge said.
Earlier report:
By Arwyn Rice
Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — A North Olympic Peninsula Marine will be pinned today with the Navy Cross in recognition of heroic combat action in preventing an ambush against his unit in Afghanistan two years ago.
Sgt. Clifford Wooldridge, 24, a member of the Port Angeles High School Class of 2006, will receive the Navy Cross from Navy Undersecretary Robert Work, at a 1 p.m. ceremony in front of the members of his former unit, the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines at Twentynine Palms, Calif.
The Navy Cross is the highest medal that can be awarded by the Navy and is second only to the Medal of Honor, awarded for exceptional valor.
Until today, only 25 members of the Navy and Marines serving in Iraq and Afghanistan had been awarded the Navy Cross.
Wooldridge’s mother, Tammy Wooldridge of Port Angeles, spent Thursday traveling to Twentynine Palms to see her son, who now lives in Chesapeake, Va., receive the medal.
“I’m a proud mom,” she said.
Clifford Wooldridge kept what happened that day in Afghanistan a secret from his mother, who said she needed the two years since she learned of his nomination for the Navy Cross to come to terms it.
“He said he had done something he might get an award for,” she said.
But he never told her exactly what it was he had done, and she had to learn of the events in Afghanistan from his brother.
According to the narrative with the Navy Cross, this is what happened:
Wooldridge was serving as a vehicle commander on a mounted patrol June 18, 2010, in the Musa Qala district of Afghanistan’s Helmand Province.
The patrol came under heavy enemy fire, and Wooldridge, who was then a corporal, ordered his Marines out of their vehicles, and they began to maneuver toward the enemy fighting positions.
He led a four-man fire team to outflank 15 Taliban fighters as they prepared to attack the rest of the patrol.
Wooldridge and his Marines killed or wounded eight of the fighters, scattering the rest.
As his team withdrew, Wooldridge heard voices from behind a wall of a nearby compound.
When he investigated, Wooldridge found himself face to face with two Taliban fighters, whom he killed with his weapon.
Out of ammunition, Wooldridge crouched to reload his weapon when he saw the barrel of a Taliban machine gun appear from around the corner of the wall.
Wooldridge grabbed the barrel and pulled the surprised fighter around the corner with it, and they began fighting hand to hand.
Realizing his predicament against the 6-foot, 3-inch, 220-pound Marine, the Taliban fighter attempted to pull the pin on a grenade in order to kill them both.
Wooldridge used the fighter’s own machine gun to kill him with several blows to the head.
Even long after the danger had passed, it was an emotional moment for his mother when she learned of what her son had done.
“I cried,” Shirley said.
Wooldridge had a great-uncle who died in the service in Korea, and both his father, Guy Wooldridge, and his grandfather served in the military, she said.
“He always looked up to servicemembers. He liked to go to the Coast Guard base for Veterans Day,” she said.
Wooldridge played football and baseball, wrestled for the Roughriders and was well-remembered by his coaches.
“He was a consummate team member that established leadership qualities that were exemplified on the field of play during his career at Port Angeles High School,” said Dwayne Johnson, Port Angeles High School athletics director.
“He was a hard hitter on the football field and knew his assignments.” Johnson said.
“On special teams, he was fearless and demonstrated his tenacious ability to make a tackle.”
In wrestling, he was driven and caught up with many more experienced wrestlers, said Erik Gonzalez, Port Angeles wrestling coach.
“He understood the concepts of team, leadership, cooperation and, most of all, dedication,” Gonzalez said.
“Cliff has made the Port Angeles Roughrider family most proud.”
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
