Purple Heart awarded to Hot Springs native

HOT SPRINGS — Sgt. David Scudder, a Hot Springs native, was awarded a Purple Heart on Aug. 7 after being wounded while serving with the Army’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, in Afghanistan last September.

U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, a Republican representing the 4th Congressional District, honored Scudder for “bravery in action.”

“During a Sept. 12, 2019, mission to retake a district center held by the Taliban in Farah Province, Sgt. Scudder took a bullet to the leg,” Westerman wrote in the Congressional Record. “Members of his unit, Spc. Joseph Sturgill and Spc. Dominic Green, took quick action. Placing Scudder on a stretcher, they carried him two miles to safety while taking enemy fire from a second ambush.

“It is stories of this one which reminds us of the price our service members pay for the defense of liberty. It is my hope that all of Hot Springs, the state of Arkansas, and this nation will join me in honoring the valor of individuals like Sgt. Scudder.”

Scudder began his military career in 2010 when enlisting in the U.S. Air Force, where he remained for six years.

In 2017, he enlisted in the Army, and in July 2019 he was deployed to Afghanistan.

“On one of our missions … it was called a ‘ROD,’ a remain over day,” Scudder said, “we had a mission to take a district there that was taken by the Taliban during election season, so we went in and took the district center back.

“We held the district center through the night and into the day, and the special operation commission came down the night we were supposed to exit field and said they wanted us to do a raid on the village across the river. We geared up, went in for the raid, and upon entering the village we were ambushed.

“On initiation, I took a round in my upper right thigh, returned fire, got behind cover. P.J., our pararescue guy, came up and put a tourniquet on my leg. I passed out from loss of blood, then the special forces medic came up and put another tourniquet on my leg. So I had two tourniquets on my right leg,”

Scudder said.

“I couldn’t walk, so they put me on a stretcher and two of my guys … carried me out on a stretcher. It was about a 4-kilometer movement to our exfil (extraction) site. At exfil, they attempted another ambush, which … our saw gunner eliminated the enemy on the second ambush (and) we had a safe exfil.”

After being wounded, Scudder said he took eight weeks to heal in-country before starting to run missions again.

As for his leg present-day, he said other than pain and an occasional limp, it is nothing unmanageable and he continues to serve in the Army.

He is currently stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina with his family, preparing to re-station to Alaska.