Former Badger given Bronze Star

Former Badger Rower Smith Earns Bronze Star

MADISON, Wis. - Former Wisconsin men’s rower Matt Smith, 2000 team captain, has been awarded the U.S. Army’s Bronze Star Medal for his service in Iraq. Smith, a 2004 U.S. Olympian who was scheduled to return to the United States on July 30, will return to the Army’s World Class Athlete Program and begin training for the 2008 Olympics in mid-August.

According to the Pentagon Web site, the Bronze Star Medal is awarded to any person who, while serving in any capacity in or with the military of the United States after 6 December 1941, distinguished himself or herself by heroic or meritorious achievement or service, not involving participation in aerial flight, while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States; while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force; or while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party. Awards may be made for acts of heroism, performed under circumstances described above, which are of lesser degree than required for the award of the Silver Star. Awards may be made to recognize single acts of merit or meritorious service. The required achievement or service while of lesser degree than that required for the award of the Legion of Merit must nevertheless have been meritorious and accomplished with distinction.

It is not known at this time what prompted the honor that was recieved on July 22, however Captain Smith spent at least part of his time in Taji, Iraq (about 20 miles north of Baghdad) on a 10-man Military Transition Team (MiTT), in the 1st Tank Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 9th Division Iraqi Army MiTT. The Woodbridge, Va., native served a one-year stretch during his deployment training Iraqi soldiers. His tour of duty began approximately one year after he finished ninth in the men’s lightweight four without coxswain at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.