More than 23 years after a deadly attack on U.S. forces stationed in Kuwait at the start of the Iraq War, those killed and wounded are receiving Purple Hearts for their sacrifice.
The medals will be awarded next month to 14 soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division and two airmen who served as Air Force liaison officers with the division.
Retired Army Command Sgt. Maj. Bart Womack, who spearheaded the yearslong effort for recognition, tells Newsmax the "long overdue" awards recognize the courageous men who were attacked by an "enemy determined to kill and wound as many American service members as possible."
"I witnessed their bravery and suffering, and I wasn't going to stop fighting for them," said Womack. After surviving the attack in Kuwait, Womack deployed to Iraq with his team and earned two Bronze Stars, including one for valor.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the department was honored to give the service members the recognition they deserve, adding their courage "in the face of a cowardly act of terrorism" was never in doubt.
"It's tremendous news," Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who supported the service members in their efforts to obtain Purple Hearts, told Newsmax.
"These folks were there to deploy for the invasion of Iraq. They were injured or killed in the line of duty. To me, it made no sense not to recognize them with a Purple Heart."
The deadly attack
In the early morning of March 23, 2003, U.S. Army Sgt. Hasan Karim Akbar launched an attack against his fellow service members who were stationed at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait ahead of a deployment to fight Saddam Hussein's forces in Iraq.
Akbar, a member of the 101st Airborne Division, stole ammunition from storage, cut the power to the camp's lights, lobbed grenades into tents housing officers, and shot service members as they tried to escape.
Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone died from dozens of shrapnel wounds, and Army Capt. Christopher Seifert died from a gunshot wound to the back. Fourteen others were wounded, six critically.
According to the Purple Heart award submission information obtained by Newsmax, Akbar had written in his diaries statements declaring himself an enemy combatant.
"My life will not be complete unless America is destroyed," he wrote in one entry. "Destroying America was my plan as a child, juvenile and while in college. Destroying America is my greatest goal," he added in another.
Akbar was detained at Camp Pennsylvania on the day of the attack. He was tried at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on April 21, 2005, and sentenced to death for premeditated murder and attempted murder. He now awaits execution at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
The attack on Camp Pennsylvania in 2003 is highlighted in the Army's Level 1 training on anti-terrorism awareness, listed in the manual as an "insider threat."
The controversy
The Purple Heart is one of the most recognized and respected U.S. military medals, awarded to service members who are wounded or killed as a result of enemy action.
At the time of the attack, the soldiers and airmen killed and wounded were not considered for the Purple Heart medal because they had been targeted by a fellow American soldier.
However, as more information came out about Akbar's motives, Womack said he and others familiar with the deadly incident felt strongly that they had been attacked by a "domestic terrorist who had [carried] out a jihadi attack on foreign soil."
"At the time, the U.S. military presumed that no one in the United States could be a lone actor," Womack said, adding that Akbar wasn't directly communicating with a terror group.
However, that perspective about lone actors changed after an attack on Fort Hood, Texas, years later.
Service members came under attack by Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan on Nov. 5, 2009. Hasan had been radicalized by al-Qaida propaganda prior to his attack on the base, which killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others.
Victims of Hasan's assault at Fort Hood were awarded Purple Hearts in 2016 after a bipartisan push in Congress redefined what constitutes an attack by a foreign enemy.
According to a Pentagon press release at the time, the Purple Heart award criteria was amended to include attacks where the perpetrator "was in communication with the foreign terrorist organization before the attack" and "was inspired or motivated by the foreign terrorist organization."
This change led to service members killed or wounded in similar acts of terrorism receiving Purple Hearts.
The list included an airman who was stabbed in the face while subduing a gunman on a train to Paris in August 2015 and the service members killed and wounded in a shooting by a Saudi military officer at Naval Air Station Pensacola in December 2019.
"So our guys got held to a different standard than something that happened 12, 13 years later. Akbar was just way, way ahead of his time," Womack said.
When Womack, with the support of Congressman Bacon, nominated the victims for Purple Hearts in 2022, the Army and Air Force military and civilian leaders who review awards nominations denied Purple Heart medals for those wounded in the Camp Pennsylvania attack.
In a letter to Bacon dated Jan. 9, 2023, Army Brig. Gen. Gregory Johnson wrote the denial resulted from "no evidence that the attack was inspired by a foreign terrorist organization or that Sergeant Akbar was in communication with any such entity."
"I couldn't believe it," Womack told Newsmax. "We swore an oath to defend against enemies both foreign and domestic."
Bacon said the denial was based on an unfair technicality by the Biden administration that "didn't make sense."
"It was sort of cold and callous in my mind," Bacon told Newsmax. "I don't think they saw the big picture and the righteousness of what we were trying to do ... for these families."
"They were being maybe too legal by saying, 'Well, was this guy in communications with al-Qaida or not?' But he was radicalized," he added. "And so he was just as much an enemy as somebody who was in communication."
Army Col. Andras Marton, who survived multiple shrapnel wounds in his legs and a collapsed lung during the attack, said that the award will honor and recognize the ultimate sacrifices paid by his two brothers-in-arms killed in the attack.
"Every time I visit Arlington National Cemetery, I go to Maj. Stone's grave. I see a Purple Heart on the stone to his right and to his left, and I know he deserves one, too. This is for him," Marton told Newsmax.
Renewed effort
In December 2024, Womack finalized his rebuttal to the denial of the Purple Heart medals and continued to push the case for those wounded in the Akbar attack.
"With the new administration, we thought it was possible," Bacon said.
Womack said he spent most of last year meeting with new Pentagon officials to share his case.
"I would always start off by asking people, 'if someone says it's my goal to destroy America, are they an enemy of the United States? Are they terrorists? Are they both? Are they neither?" he said.
"That is the kind of clear and present evidence that says that he's the enemy of the United States, and really, whether they want to admit this is terrorism or not, it's one thing to say those things, but it's another thing to kill people," he said.
The veteran told Newsmax he had received the good news from an official in the defense secretary's office, who told him the soldiers and airmen wounded in the Akbar attack would be awarded Purple Heart medals next month.
"The failure of the previous administration to recognize their sacrifice was wrong, and [War] Secretary [Pete] Hegseth is proud to rectified it," Parnell said.
A ceremony to honor the recipients will be held on May 18 at Fort Campbell, home to the 101st Airborne Division.
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