Earlier this week, President Bush awarded the first Medal of Honor to a soldier serving in Iraq.

Sgt. 1st Class Paul Smith was killed in a firefight near Baghdad airport.

Smith, who was serving in the the 11th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, held off a brutal assault by at least 100 members of the Iraqi Special Republican Guard.

According to the medal citation, as the fight developed, Smith braved hostile enemy fire to personally engage the enemy with hand grenades and anti-tank weapons and organized the evacuation of three wounded soldiers from an armored personnel carrier struck by a rocket propelled grenade and a 60-mm mortar round. Fearing the enemy would overrun their defenses, Smith moved under withering enemy fire to man a .50-caliber machine gun mounted on a damaged armored personnel carrier. In total disregard for his own life, he maintained his exposed position in order to engage the attacking enemy force. During this action, he was mortally wounded. His courageous actions helped defeat the enemy attack, and resulted in as many as 50 enemy soldiers killed, while allowing the rescue of numerous wounded soldiers.

The Medal of Honor is the country’s highest award for valor in combat. Before Smith, it was most recently awarded to Army Master Sgt. Gary Gordon – of Lincoln, Maine – and Sgt. 1st Class Randall Shughart, who also recieved the award posthumously. They were killed in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993.

The United States owes a great debt to soldiers like Smith, who make the ultimate sacrifice in defense of their comrades and country.