Notice Nearby

Decorations register · Notice Nearby

Portrait of Paul R. Smith

Official U.S. Army likeness already on the Iraq roll

Paul R. Smith

1969–2003

Sergeant First Class

Company B, 11th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division; Baghdad, April 4, 2003

Documented decorations

Paul Ray Smith was killed on a damaged armored personnel carrier’s .50-caliber at Baghdad International Airport on April 4, 2003. The Medal of Honor citation is the record of that stand. The Purple Heart follows the combat death. The Bronze Star Medal is named among the Army decorations published with that official account.

This page will not turn the citation into a novel, and it will not add a Silver Star the Army has not listed here. He is buried at Arlington. He is not missing.

He is already on the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan roll. The decorations row there is this same short list — Purple Heart and Bronze Star Medal — cited to the Medal of Honor Society record the Army made public.

A longer service essay is on the American War Heroes roll. That page does not invent medals. This page does not replace it.

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.