Fallen Marine to receive Navy Cross

The ferocious fighting that the men of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, encountered during their 2010-11 deployment to Afghanistan with Regimental Combat Team 2 — and the valor with which they fought — has been hailed yet again with an award for “extraordinary heroism” in combat.

Sgt. Matthew T. Abbate is the latest leatherneck with the Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based “Darkhorse” battalion to be honored with the coveted Navy Cross. He was cited for his “bold and decisive leadership” while leading his scout-sniper section through a hellish ambush in Sangin district on Oct. 14, 2010.

Abbate was killed in combat just six weeks after that battle, on Dec. 2, 2010. He was 26. His survivors include his young son, Carson, and family in the Fresno, Calif., area.

Abbate was later nominated for a posthumous award of the Navy Cross, and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus approved the medal this month, according to spokeswoman Pamela Kunze, who provided a copy of the approved award citation.

Abbate and his scout-snipers were patrolling Sangin’s northern green zone when Taliban fighters and insurgents attacked the Marines. The squad didn’t know it but they were in the midst of a minefield. Two Marines and the Navy corpsman hit improvised explosive devices “in rapid succession,” according to the citation. Abbate quickly reacted.

“With the squad leader incapacitated, and the rest of the patrol either wounded or disoriented, Sergeant Abbate took command,” the citation states. “With total disregard for his own life, he sprinted forward through the minefield to draw enemy fire and rallied the dazed survivors. While fearlessly firing at the enemy from his exposed position, he directed fires of his Marines until they effectively suppressed the enemy, allowing life-saving aid to be rendered to the casualties.”

As the medical evacuation helicopter was inbound, Abbate swept the landing zone for explosives, but the patrol again had to duck enemy fire. Still, the sergeant persevered.

“Realizing that the casualties would die unless rapidly evacuated, Sergeant Abbate once again bravely exposed himself to enemy fire, rallied his Marines and led a counter attack that cleared the enemy from the landing zone, enabling the helicopters to evacuate the wounded,” according to the citation.

Abbate’s infantry battalion carved its own storied place in Marine Corps history when it battled insurgents in the 2004 Battle of Fallujah in Iraq, one of 3/5’s three combat tours in Iraq. Darkhorse saw combat just as intense and deadly in Afghanistan, losing 25 men in battle, including nine over a four-day period in October 2010.

Mabus is expected to present the Navy Cross — which ranks second only to the Medal of Honor for Marines and sailors — to Abbate’s family at an award ceremony later this year.