While serving with the U.S. Army in the Middle East, Sgt. Maj. Colin Boley received orders to lead a raid on an enemy position.
“They told me that we had a meeting place, simply two people, not a big deal,” he recalled. “So I decided to tell my young leaders, ‘Go bring the newer guys up.’ If it was going to be a touch-and-go, I wanted them to get that to be their first mission in Iraq.”
What followed was a matter of, as he stressed, “ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”
As guest speaker at the annual Hampton Heroes event, held Nov. 4 at Fridley Field and hosted by Hampton Middle School, Boley addressed an audience primarily of youngsters in sixth through eighth grades.
“Today is probably the most intimidating time I’ve ever had to speak to anybody, speaking in front of middle school students, because you’re definitely going to see what you’re going to get,” he said. “But it also is a big honor, because what stands in front of us today is the future of this nation.”
The soldiers he led on the March 2010 mission near Al-Qa’im, Iraq, weren’t that much older than the Hampton students. And when they reached their target, “a house that was no bigger than a garage,” they were in for a shock.
“Little did we know, the whole house was subterranean,” Boley said. “There were caves that probably went 10 miles in either direction.”
When his soldiers came under attack, it represented their first time in combat. But their military training served them well.
“Fourteen men took down 34 bad guys and saved the lives of 12 Iraqi civilians who were kidnapped. Either they were interpreters for U.S. or coalition forces, or they worked for the government of Iraq,” he said. “Fourteen ordinary men walked in and did extraordinary things.”
Boley, a Moon Township resident, spoke about his own not-so-extraordinary youth.
“I didn’t want to join the Army. I wanted to go see the recruiter in the library to get out of class,” he admitted.
As a result, an Army National Guard recruiter paid persistent visits to Boley’s home after he graduated from high school.
“I told him, ‘You know, if I’m going to do it right, I’m going to join the active duty. I’m going to do it full-time. I’m not going to go do that weekend stuff,’” Boley said. “One week later, an active-duty recruiter was knocking on my door.”
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Despite others’ dire predictions — “You’d be thrown out within a month of basic training” — he went on to a long and meritorious military career, earning numerous awards and commendations. Among them are the Iraqi Campaign Medal with Silver Star and Afghanistan Campaign Medal with two Bronze Stars.
“And almost 30 years later, I stand in front of you today,” he said at Fridley Field, “because it was something I found that I could relate to: ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”