TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. — Navy Undersecretary Robert O. Work on Friday pinned a North Olympic Peninsula Marine with the Navy Cross in recognition of heroic combat action in fighting 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, received the honor during an afternoon ceremony in front of his family and the members of his former unit, the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, at Twentynine Palms, Calif.
He earned the medal for combat actions in Helmand province, Afghanistan, while attached to 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment in 2010.
The ceremony took place at Lance Cpl. Torrey L. Gray Field.
The Navy Cross honors exceptional valor.
It is the highest medal that can be awarded by the Department of the Navy and is second only to the Medal of Honor.
Until Friday, only 25 members of the Navy and Marines serving in Iraq and Afghanistan had been awarded the Navy Cross.
Wooldridge is now a combat weapons instructor at Marine Corps Security Forces Regiment in Chesapeake, Va.
Wooldridge’s parents, Guy and Tammy Wooldridge of Port Angeles, spent Thursday traveling to Twentynine Palms to see their son receive the medal.
“I’m a proud mom,” Tammy Wooldridge said then.
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.
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.
