An Army soldier who gave up his life to save three of his fellow soldiers from a suicide bomber in Iraq in 2007 will be awarded the Medal of Honor, President Trump announced Tuesday.
Staff Sgt. Travis W. Atkins, 31, was killed in 2007 after he “engaged in hand-to-hand combat” with a suspected insurgent in the Iraqi town of Abu Samak while his unit participated in a route clearance, according to his biography page on the U.S. Army’s website. Atkins was checking for weapons, but the encounter turned physical, and Atkins determined that the suspected insurgent had a bomb attached to him.
As the suspected insurgent attempted to set off his suicide vest, Atkins tackled him and used “his own body to shield his fellow soldiers from the imminent explosion,” the White House’s announcement said.
Atkins, who was a squad leader with the 10th Mountain Division based out of Fort Drum, N.Y., will posthumously receive the military’s highest award for his actions in 2007 to support Operation Iraqi Freedom at an event on March 27.
A fitness center at Fort Drum was named after Atkins in 2013, where one of the soldiers who served with Atkins’ characterized him as as his “favorite superhero.”
“When my 4-year-old son Travis tells me his favorite superhero is Captain America and asks me who my favorite superhero is, my reply always has and will be Staff Sgt. Travis W. Atkins,” then-Sgt. Aaron Hall said at the dedication ceremony, according to the Army.
Atkins’ mother, Elaine Atkins, told the Associated Press her son “loved the Army. … When he joined the Army, that’s when he found his niche.”
Atkins joined the Army in 2000 and served a tour in Iraq in 2003 before leaving the Army that year to attend the University of Montana. He re-enlisted in the Army in 2005 and was deployed to Iraq again in 2006.
