Inside Report for Oct. 14, 2009

• By SANDY DAVIS
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 14, 2009 - Page: 9B

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Rebekah Smith doesn’t want there to be any question about how she feels about her husband.

“I am so very proud of him,” she said.

Her husband is Marine Corps Maj. Jason Smith, who was awarded the Silver Star, the third-highest military medal, for bravery in Iraq.

Smith earned the medal during the fight for Fallujah in spring 2004. Some Marines from his company were surrounded and trapped by enemy forces. Smith led a convoy through the city to rescue them.

As the convoy wound its way through the city’s streets, it suddenly slowed because of heavy enemy fire. Smith got out the vehicle in which he was riding in the rear of the convoy, ran up to the front and led it on foot — all the while under fire.

It’s these kinds of activities that do make a wife worry.

“Before he left for Iraq, I said, ‘Please, if you hear bullets, could you please duck?’ ” Rebekah Smith said. “But I knew he wouldn’t do that; they are taught to run into the line of fire and that’s exactly what he did.”

Staying behind can be difficult, especially in this technically advanced world, she said.

“We would turn on CNN and they would be showing the fighting in Fallujah,” she said. “It was strange, from my point of view, to see the fighting and know that my husband was there.

“It’s a lot different than it used to be. We, the wives and family, would never have seen anything like a battle happening on TV.

“While it was really scary watching that and knowing he was there, I’m not sure if I could reverse back in time and have to wait for months to find out what happened.”

Another time, Rebekah Smith was listening to a National Public Radio story from Fallujah.

“As he (the reporter) was reporting his story, I could hear Jason’s voice in the background,” Smith said. “He was giving his men orders. It was so good to hear him and know in that moment, he was OK.”