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Bradley Kasal was born in 1966 in rural Afton, Iowa, population 941. He joined the Marine Corps in 1984 when he was fresh out of East Union High School and fresh off the family farm.
There was never any doubt which branch of the service he would choose, it had long been his dream to one day be a Marine. Brad came from a military family, his brother Jeff is a retired Army paratrooper who fought in Desert Storm with the 82nd Airborne.
His brother Kelly was in the Army four years 
and another brother, Kevin, served four years as a Marine.
His father served in the Iowa National Guard for six years during the 40's and 50's.
Iowa National Guard Building
For his extraordinary heroism and leadership in Fallujah, Iraq, as the Weapons Company first sergeant for 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Kasal was awarded the Navy Cross during a ceremony at Camp Pendleton on May 1, 2006. He was also promoted that day to the rank of Sargeant Major, the highest enlisted rank, and he re-enlisted for three years. His father Gerald Kasal, died of cancer the day before the award ceremony.
The Navy Cross is the 2nd. highest military award, 2nd. only to the Medal Of Honor.
If you ask Sgt. Kasal about his heroic deed he will tell you without a moment's hesitation he did what any good Marine would have done. That includes taking enemy rifle fire on Nov. 14, 2004, absorbing a grenade blast, and refusing medical attention inside a house in Fallujaha during Operation Phantom Fury.
On Nov. 14th, 2004, then 1st Sgt. Kasal and his platoon were patroling the streets of Fallujah when intense gunfire broke out in an Iraqi home to his immediate front. They were five days into Operation Phantom Fury, the American assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. When he found out that there were Marines still pinned down inside the house, nothing the insurgents could put on the table would stop him from rescuing his Marines. "Going in for them was the right thing to do",said Kasal, "they're Marines, and I'm a Marine, we look out for each other.
Upon entering the house, Kasal barked orders to younger Marines to cover vantage spots where insurgents might be hiding. He turned into one room and immediately ran into an insurgent who cried out in Arabic. The two exchanged gunfire; the insurgent missed and Kasal killed him.
Another fighter sent a burst of automatic fire from upstairs that sliced through Kasal and Pfc. Alexander Nicoll, knocking them both to the floor. Kasal, his leg shot up with six rounds, dragged Nicoll out of the line of fire, but another AK-47 round hit him in his buttocks. With both Marines bleeding, Kasal used the only two compression bandages they had to control Nicoll's bleeding. "It made more sense to use all of the bandages on one of us then to split the supplies and have us both bleed to death", Kasal said.
The insurgents deployed a hand grenade to get the Marines out of cover, and it landed within a few feet of the two bleeding Marines. Kasal then decided to use his own severely wounded body to protect Nicoll from shrapnel. Kasal was severely wounded by shrapnel but he continued shouting encouragement to his fellow Marines until help arrived. Kasal refused medical attention until other Marines were helped and made sure Marines in the street knew there were Marines inside so none would be hit by so-called friendly fire.
Pfc. Alexander Nicoll's wounds being treated
As Marines fought their way into the house, the first sergeant ordered them to treat Pfc. Nicoll. He took a fighting position to protect them as they treated and evacuated Nicoll. The battle lasted more than an hour.
Sgt. Byron Norwood
In the end, Sgt. Byron Norwood, a 25-year-old Texan, was killed and about a dozen other Marines were wounded.
By the time he was carried out of the house by Lance Cpl. Chris Marquez and Lance Cpl. Dan Shaffer Kasal had lost approximately 60 percent of his blood from more than 40 shrapnel wounds and seven 7.62 mm AK-47 gunshots. Still clenched in Kasal's right hand is his 9 mm Beretta. "They left their weapons behind so they could better carry me out … putting them at risk," he said.
Pfc. Nicoll survived his injuries but his right leg was so badly injured from his wounds it had to be amputated.
The road to recovery for Kasal has been a long and continuing struggle. After refusing medical care initially, he was evacuated to a field hospital in Iraq. Initial surgery only cleaned out the wound. He was given transfusions and sent to the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.
U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany
He has undergone 22 operations at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in order to save his injured right leg.
Bethesda Naval Hospital
His lower leg was connected to a metal device called a halo brace that is full of pins and screws that doctors manipulated each day to stretch his battered lower leg a millimeter at a time, trying to extend it to the length it used to be before an insurgent blew it in half with a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
As soon as he was able, he was in a wheelchair, visiting his fellow battle wounded troops. "I wanted to be back in Iraq. I wanted to be over there and I was not," Kasal said. "So, I'd wheel around and ask people how they were doing and take the conversation from there. I'd try to reassure them. We'd just talk about whatever they wanted to talk about."
Today, Kasal serves as the sergeant major of a recruiting station in Des Moines, Iowa (he is from nearby Afton). His fondest hope is to recover sufficiently to be able to rejoin his men in Iraq. The pain endures. he suffers from loss of motion, arthritis, back injuries, poor blood circulation and other health problems. "I'm getting around fairly well. I'm not even close to 100 percent and I probably never will be," admits the sergeant major. "I have a lot of issues I'll have to deal with for the rest of my life
"Men like Sgt. Maj. Kasal epitomize the sacrifices our brave men and women in uniform are willing to make for their brothers in arms and our nation," said DAV National Service Director Randy Reese. "The least we can do to show our gratitude is to continue the tradition of care and service we've provided generations of wounded warriors." 
Page by Mary Jones 2007
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