05/30/2026
Thanks to Battle Battlesight Zero for this highlight.
With his vehicle smoldering from a rocket-propelled gr***de and enemy fighters in fortified positions, Sergeant Michael Mendoza grabbed five Marines and led them on a dead sprint straight at the enemy.
April 7, 2004. Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Mendoza’s platoon was ambushed. Their vehicle was burning. The enemy held the high ground. Mendoza didn’t wait — he organized his men and charged. They sprinted across open ground, scaled a 10-foot berm, and drove through a muddy canal until they were close enough to throw gr***des. The assault killed 10 insurgents and shattered the enemy’s line.
But wounded Marines were still exposed. Mendoza surged forward again. When an enemy fighter concealed in a trench shot his commanding officer, Mendoza killed the insurgent on the spot. He then dropped to his knees in the open — rockets and machine gun fire tearing the dirt around him — and held the position until an armored vehicle arrived to evacuate the wounded officer.
Originally awarded the Silver Star, his decoration was upgraded to the Navy Cross in January 2017 — the second-highest award for valor in the U.S. military.
Mendoza served with 2nd Platoon, Company B, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division. The actions of his platoon on April 7, 2004 produced one of the most decorated single engagements of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. In 2006, while on a sniper mission with 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, a gr***de exploded just feet from him, collapsing his diaphragm and puncturing both lungs. He survived.
After leaving the Marines in 2007, Mendoza earned a master’s degree from the University of Illinois. He broke the Guinness World Record for the most 70.3 Ironman triathlons in a single year — racing to raise money for wounded veterans and donating 100% of funds raised. He is the founder of the Military Reunion Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to giving back to those who served.
