Silver Star Recipient: Never Leave A Fallen Ranger Behind

FORT BENNING, Ga. -- We are sometimes so eager to find the heroes among us, that we may lower our standards to find them.

Celebrating heroism not only inspires us, but also renews our faith in the goodness of people.

Nobody lowered any standards on Tuesday at Fort Benning, where the Rangers honored one of their own with the third highest combat medal in the army.

This is hallowed ground for the Third Ranger Battalion. This is where they remember their dead, and honor their living.

This is where they teach the rest of us the essence of courage and heroism. This is where they told us what Staff Sergeant Michael Norton did.

"Staff Sergeant Norton's distinctive heroism and personal leadership under fire," described the ceremony's narrator. "And at the risk of his life, was well above the call of duty."

This August, while moving through a mountain pass in Afghanistan to attack an enemy position, Sergeant Norton and his men were ambushed. He pulled them back and then realized two of his rangers were down.

"With complete disregard for his own safety and at great risk to his own life," the narrator continued. "Staff Sergeant Norton gallantly turned around and with marked distinction, purposefully charged back into the interlocking fire of the enemy ambush kill zone in order to recover his downed Rangers."

Norton got them to safety, reorganized his squad, and they wiped out the enemy. For his gallantry in the face of insane danger, he received the Army's third highest combat medal -- the Silver Star.

"Any Ranger would've done the same thing," Sergeant Norton said. "The Ranger creed: we'll never leave a fallen comrade. There was no moment of thinking about what to do. We had to get -- I had to get my brothers."

Staff Sergeant Michael Norton is from Pensacola, Fla. He is married with two children.

His Silver Star ranks below only the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross for recognition of valor in combat.

Staff Sergeant Norton thanked God and his Ranger training for what happened that day in Afghanistan. He looks forward to going back -- for his seventh tour of duty.

And if people continue to search for the essence of courage and heroism, then let them come to this hallowed ground, and let what Michael Norton did stand as an example for us today, and generations to come.