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| Affiliation | Republican |
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| Name | David Bellavia |
| Address | 9 Allanview Drive
Batavia, New York , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
November 10, 1975
(48 years)
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Modifed | RBH
May 09, 2012 07:53pm |
| Tags |
Caucasian - Italian - Army -
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| Info | David Bellavia (born November 10, 1975) is an Iraq War veteran who was awarded the Silver Star for his actions during the Second Battle of Fallujah. Bellavia has also received the Bronze Star, three Army Commendation Medals, two Army Achievement Medals and the New York State Conspicuous Service Cross. He has also been nominated for the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross. In 2005, Bellavia was inducted into the New York Veterans' Hall of Fame.[1]
He enlisted in the United States Army in July 1999 and served for six years, retiring from service with the rank of Staff Sergeant.
The actions for which Bellavia earned a Silver Star took place on his 29th birthday. As a member of Company A, Task Force 2-2, 1st Infantry Division, his platoon was assigned during Operation Phantom Fury to clear a block of twelve buildings from which Hezbollah insurgents were firing on U.S. troops. The platoon began searching house-to-house. At the tenth house, Bellavia fatally shot an insurgent preparing to load a rocket-propelled grenade. A second Hezbollah insurgent fired at him, and Bellavia wounded him in the shoulder. When Staff Sergeant Bellavia entered a bedroom, the wounded insurgent followed, forcing Bellavia to kill him. When another insurgent began firing from upstairs, Bellavia returned fire and killed him. A fourth insurgent, then, jumped out of a closet in the bedroom, yelling and firing his weapon as he leaped over a bed trying to reach Bellavia. The insurgent tripped and Bellavia wounded him. Bellavia chased the insurgent when he ran upstairs. He followed the wounded insurgent's bloody footprints to a room on the left and threw in a fragmentation grenade. Upon entering the room, Bellavia discovered it was filled with propane tanks and plastic explosives. He did not fire his weapon for fear of setting off an explosion and instead, then engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the insurgent, which lead to Bellavia killing the Hezbollah insurgent by stabbing him in the collarbone with a Gerber pocketknife.[2]
His actions in Fallujah were first documented in the November 22, 2004 Time magazine cover story" "Into the Hot Zone" by journalist Michael Ware who was attached with Bellavia's unit during the fight. Bellavia later wrote a book about it in his memoir House to House: An Epic Memoir of War, co-written with John R. Bruning.[3] In September 2010 it was chosen as one of the top five best Iraq War memoirs by journalist Thomas Ricks (author of Fiasco).[4]
Bellavia lives in western New York[5] and is Vice Chairman of Vets for Freedom.
He attended the 2006 State of the Union address as an honored guest.
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