Charles Smith receives purple heart

Bessie Smith of Wadley is extremely proud of her son, Drill Sgt. Charles Smith of Auburn, who was recently awarded a Purple Heart for his actions in Iraq.

His father is the late Charlie Smith of Wadley.

Smith, 48 years old and director of the Lee County Youth Development Center, is in the Army Reserve. He spent 14 months in Iraq as a member of the 108th Army Division and came home to Auburn in the spring, his mother said.

Smith joined the U.S. Army Reserve in 1983, and 23 years later he was in a building when insurgents in a truck loaded with explosives tried to ram into the facility but were stopped with gunfire.

In September he received the Purple Heart in the division’s Charlotte, N.C. training facility.

Smith was in the gym at his compound in Mosul, Iraq when the explosion occurred. After the explosion he did not realize shrapnel had entered his leg until he noticed the blood while quickly putting on his uniform.

He and an injured Army medic helped rescue severely injured Maj. Christopher Matson, who was unconscious for five days.

Due to her fears for her son Smith rarely watched television but accidentally saw something about the suicide bomber at Mosul.

She knew that was where he was and was nervous when the telephone rang at 10:30 a.m. It was his wife, Sherylyn, calling to say he was injured but was all right, she said.

“He called me. I just wanted to hear his voice. He made it back and I’m so thankful,” she said.

“I’m still praying for all those still over there. I pray and hope they will send them all home. They need to let me go over there and gather them all up and bring them all home,” she said.

She had 11 children, 10 who are still living, and all those months he was in Iraq were nerve-wracking, she said.

She had seven daughters and four sons, 23 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

“We’re a very close family,” she said.

Smith and his wife have Justin, 11, and Cameryn, 7.

His retirement will be effective in November, his mother said.