SCHOFIELD BARRACKS — In a heartbeat, the barrier emplacement mission last April in Sadr City in Baghdad had transformed into the defense of their lives for a platoon of Hawai'i soldiers.

An M1 Abrams tank was hit by a projectile known as an "explosively formed penetrator" and a tank crewman was wounded.

As a Hawai'i-based armored Stryker vehicle moved forward, a roadside bomb exploded beneath it, engulfing the 19-ton vehicle in flames.

An ambush had been sprung, and enemy small arms and rocket propelled grenade fire rained in from multiple points.

Capt. Logan Veath, a company commander with the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry, helped pull out the wounded tank crewman, then saw his Stryker vehicle get hit.

"I started running toward my Stryker, saying a silent prayer, 'Please don't let my men burn up in there,' " the 31-year-old Veath recalled saying.

But Spc. Andrew Howard was on fire, screaming and running toward the enemy, according to accounts from the firefight.

Veath ran him down as bullets flew, rolling him on the ground to put out the flames before walking Howard — and finally carrying him — to safety.

Veath was awarded a Bronze Star with valor for "exceptionally meritorious service." His was just one of the stories told yesterday at a redeployment ceremony for 4,300 Stryker brigade soldiers who returned in February and this month from 15 months in Iraq.

The soldiers were arrayed in formation on Sills Field as the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team's red and blue battle flag was "uncased" again in Hawai'i following the deployment.

The "Warrior" brigade soldiers received four Bronze Star medals with valor and 35 Purple Heart medals.

Brigade commander Col. Todd B. McCaffrey said he "could be no prouder of any group of men and women as I am of these. Warriors, thank you for your service."

DRAWING FIRE

The approximately 45-day mission to Sadr City by a company each of the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry; 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry; and 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry in the spring of 2008 resulted in some of the greatest contact with enemy forces.

The Schofield soldiers were tasked to the Baghdad slum to help quell an uprising by militants loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army fought battles with U.S. and Iraqi forces in Sadr City after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched a crackdown on militias loyal to al-Sadr in Basra in the south, and the fighting spilled over into the capital.

Veath and the 1-14 soldiers were in Sadr City from March 25 to May 10. The Stryker brigade and its 328 eight-wheeled armored vehicles spent most of the deployment in Taji, Tarmiyah and Abu Ghraib just north of Baghdad.

On April 29, the 1-14 soldiers had "taken a few sniper shots," Veath said.

A tank platoon and Stryker vehicles were providing security for the "T-wall" emplacement mission to cordon off an area of Sadr City on Route Gold when the soldiers were ambushed.

Sgt. 1st Class Horace Locklear and Veath had maneuvered over to the damaged tank to help when the Stryker also was hit.

Howard, 22, a gunner on the Stryker, had run out the back of the burning vehicle with his back and arms on fire.

"I don't remember a lot of it, to be honest," Howard said yesterday, still wearing medical gloves for the burns on his hands. "I remember smells, pain. That's about it."

Veath chased after Howard and along with other soldiers helped pat out the flames. Howard tried to get up again, and Veath pulled him back and yanked off his melting body armor as bullets whizzed past and dug holes in the ground.

Sgt. Jeffrey Vandercook and other soldiers started laying down return fire along the four-lane highway, according to reports from that day, and Veath said he started to pick up Howard "like a bale of hay."

"I grabbed his collar, and I went for his belt and as I did, it just ripped like paper, and I knew he was burned real bad," he said.

Howard's greatest concern at the time was over the condition of the Stryker driver, Veath said.

Veath said he was running with Howard to safety "while kinda taking shots as I ran."

"From there, he lost all his energy, and I put him on my shoulders and carried him into the medevac (vehicle)," Veath said. An Army statement recommending Veath for an even higher award — a Silver Star — said Veath carried Howard about 150 feet. Six U.S. soldiers were wounded in the firefight and 28 enemies were killed.

FALLEN COMRADE

Veath lost his first soldier as the result of a firefight in Sadr City two days later on May 1.

Sgt. John K. Daggett, 21, of Phoenix, died on May 15 in Halifax, Canada, while being transported for treatment of wounds from a rocket-propelled grenade that had struck his vehicle.

Col. John Hort, who was part of Veath's higher command on April 29, called the Nebraska man's actions "truly heroic" in recommending him for an award.

"What he did was awesome. I can't thank him enough for it," Howard said yesterday as he stood next to Veath.

Veath, for his part, said it was "humbling" to receive a Bronze Star with valor. "There are a lot of good soldiers out there that are heroes and it just happened — the time and circumstances — and I was in the right place at the right time to do the right thing," he said.