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***image1***A new medal, which is the civilian equivalent to the military’s Purple Heart, will be awarded today to two recipients at a ceremony on the parade field at the 21st Theater Support Command, marking the first time the medal has been awarded in Europe.
Maj. Gen. Bennie Williams, Commanding General of the 21st TSC, will make the Defense of Freedom Medal presentations – one of which will be made posthumously – at the 3 p.m. ceremony.
Receiving the Defense of Freedom Medal are Mr. David Caraway and the family of Mr. Mike Pouliot. The two men were military contractors who were attacked by terrorists near Kuwait City, Kuwait, in late January 2003.
Both men were employed by Tapestry Solutions Inc., a San Diego-based computer software firm, when their SUV was ambushed by terrorists.
The early morning assault occurred on the road leading from Camp Doha, the main U.S. Army installation in Kuwait. The attackers were hidden in a tree-lined area along the road, and sprayed the SUV with at least 24 bullets from an AK-47.
Caraway, who was driving the vehicle, received six gunshot wounds to the arm, chest and leg. He survived the attack. Mr. Pouliot, who had been the vice president of the firm, was killed in the ambush.
The U.S. Department of Defense created the medal to honor Pentagon employees killed or injured during the Sept. 11 attacks.
At the discretion of the Secretary of Defense, the medal may be awarded to non-Defense employees, such as contractors, based on their involvement in DOD activities.
“It will be awarded to DOD civilian employees who are killed or wounded by hostile action while serving in support of the department,” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. “The standards for eligibility will be closely modeled on those of the Purple Heart.”
Mr. Pouliot and two colleagues founded Tapestry Solutions in the early 1990s, on the belief that in order to provide effective tools, one needs to be with the users in their operational environment.
The firm provides adaptive graphical software products and services, specializing in military modeling and simulation training tools.
“In 1998, Tapestry Solutions began working with the 21st Theater Support Command,” said Mr. Jim Kramer, Director G3 Simulation. “Since then, both [Pouliot and Caraway] have been back and forth here.”
Although neither Mr. Caraway nor Mr. Pouliot worked exclusively from the 21st TSC’s Tapestry Solutions office in the Logistical Operations Center on Panzer Kaserne in Kaiserslautern, it was determined that they would receive their awards here.
“It’s being done in Germany because even though they were killed or wounded in Kuwait, Tapestry has a very close relationship with the 21st TSC,” Mr. Kramer said.
Mr. Pouliot met and married his wife, Carol, in 1979, while he was earning his degree in Aerospace Engineering at Iowa State University. They have two daughters, Tessa and Megan.
After a 15-year Army career, Mr. Caraway met and married his wife, Sabina, in 2000, while he was working for Logicon at CMTC’s Simulation’s Center in Hohenfels, Germany. He joined Tapestry Solutions in August 2002, and continutes to work in the company as a senior software engineer and senior military analyst.
