Australia's highest military honour has been awarded to Cpl Benjamin Roberts-Smith (Australian Special Air Service Regiment) for conspicuous gallantry in action against the Taliban.Cpl Benjamin Roberts-Smith, 32, was given the medal for single-handedly overpowering Taleban machine-gunners attacking his platoon last June.
"You went to Afghanistan a soldier, you came back a hero," Australian PM Julia Gillard said at the awards ceremony.
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On 11 June 2010, Cpl Roberts-Smith was leading a mission in the volatile Kandahar province when his men came under machine-gun fire from fortified Taliban positions. He decided to draw their fire away from his men, who were unable to move under the hail of bullets. The corporal deliberately revealed his position to the insurgents, shooting dead one insurgent and then overpowering two others.
"He will always know, as we know now, that in the heat of the battle he did not fail when mateship and duty called," Ms Gillard said.
Cpl Roberts-Smith is the second person to have received the Victoria Cross for Australia, which was created in 1991 and is a separate award from the British VC.
Read the official citation here.
By: Shelldrake
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