Civil Affairs Soldier Receives Silver Star

FORT BRAGG, NC – On the morning of Jan. 29, 2010, Sgt. 1st Class Steve Kimsey didn’t know that he would be distilling his 10 years of Army training and experience into less than two seconds.

Those few seconds would later earn him the Silver Star medal, which was presented to him at a ceremony during the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade’s annual Civil Affairs Week at Pinehurst, March 17. 

Kimsey and his Civil Affairs team had arrived days earlier to Camp Nunez, several miles west of Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. They were in the process of planning an upcoming medical outreach mission with their U.S. and Afghan partnered elements when they all heard AK-47 rounds fired.

Kimsey recalled sitting on a box and talking with other Soldiers in the operations center at a Special Forces camp, when he heard a single burst of an AK-47 go off around 5 p.m. 

“The first shots, we thought were an accidental discharge,” Kimsey recalled. “Our partnered forces team leader and chief ran for the door."

“The team leader and chief were going out of the door as the interpreter was coming in.  The team leader turned to try to get back in, get out of the way.  That's when I heard the second set of rounds being fired,” he said.

“I didn’t initially see the team leader or chief go down, because of the way the walls were partitioned in the operations center.  I knew rounds were coming our way and then saw an Afghani enter the operations center with an AK-47."

As the shooter entered the building with his weapons raised, Kimsey drew his pistol and began to fire while closing the distance.  The shooter went down.  After determining that the threat was neutralized, Kimsey secured the room and called for medics to treat the wounded.

“It happened very quickly, from the first burst to the second burst, to the time he came in…probably 10 to 15 seconds,” Kimsey said. "Muscle memory, training and experience definitely played its part."

The soon-to-be dismissed interpreter had killed two U.S. Soldiers and seriously wounded another, before being killed by Kimsey. 

Kimsey said, “No one expected the shooting. It was very unexpected and unfortunate.  Capt. David Thompson and Spc. Mark Decoteau were among the best Soldiers I had ever worked with.”  

After the shooting, Kimsey helped with coordinating the triage of the wounded, directing the ensuing medical evacuation, and help locate and search all of the Afghani base employees.

To ensure the incident was not more than an act of a single individual, the rest of the interpreters were kept in the camp’s small TV lounge for several days, while their rooms were searched and the incident was being investigated.

Kimsey made sure the interpreters were treated fairly, bringing them some mattresses, blankets, food, and water. 

In presenting Kimsey with the Silver Star medal, Maj. Gen. Kurt Fuller , U.S. Army Special Operations Command Deputy Commanding General, noted, “He [Kimsey] knew that he was the only thing standing between his teammates and either death or serious injury. This is the kind of thing that makes all of us proud and wants to recommit ourselves both to each other as Soldiers and to the mission at hand. He did exactly the right thing and the only thing that could have been done, to prevent further disaster. He changed the outcome by his personal heroism.”

At the time of the incident, Kimsey was a team sergeant with Company A, 91st Civil Affairs Brigade during its deployment to Afghanistan from January through August 2010. He is currently assigned to the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg as an instructor for Civil Affairs students.