Decorations register · Notice Nearby
No rights-safe contemporary likeness is on file. The record is the decoration and the writing, not an invented face.
Brian Prening
1980–2004
Corporal
Fireteam leader, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division (Yusufiyah / Triangle of Death, Iraq, 12 November 2004)
Documented decorations
Purple Heart
Named in VA #VeteranOfTheDay (13 Feb 2023) for wounds that killed him at Yusufiyah, 12 Nov 2004. Do not invent an oak-leaf count.
Public sources
Bronze Star Medal
with Combat “V” (VA #VeteranOfTheDay account)
VA #VeteranOfTheDay states Bronze Star with the combat “V” device for heroism. Do not invent oak-leaf clusters.
Public sources
Brian Prening’s Purple Heart and Bronze Star with combat “V” are named in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ #VeteranOfTheDay profile of his service. This decorations page records those two types from that VA list. It will not invent a Silver Star the VA page does not name.
Called back to active duty from the Marine Corps Reserve, Prening served as a corporal fireteam leader with 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines south of Baghdad. On November 12, 2004, during an attack at Yusufiyah, he moved under fire to help a Marine whose weapon had malfunctioned and was shot and killed. That VA account is the published official naming of the Purple Heart and Bronze Star Medal with “V” used here.
He is not yet on a war-roll essay. Sheboygan, Wisconsin roots and death at age 24 are public fact. They are not printed here as medals.
This name is not yet on a war-roll essay. The decorations above are the documented public record this register will stand on until that essay is written.
A publisher register — not a verification
This decorations register is publisher-curated from public records — Medal of Honor Society citations, published general orders, and official Army, Navy, and Marine Corps biographies. It is not a verified-veteran product. Notice Nearby does not certify service and does not issue badges.
A paid or unpaid memorial does not enroll anyone here. Checkout, VET50, and a family’s mention of service on an obituary are not applications to this list. We add a name only when a public official source names the decoration.
Claiming a decoration that was not awarded is stolen valor. It is a disrespect to those who earned the medal and, in some cases, a federal crime. This register will not invent an award to fill a page.
These pages are a historical register. They are not Legal Publication, not a newspaper notice, and not proof that a statute was satisfied.