Justin L. Pierce

Sergeant First Class Justin L. Pierce distinguished himself with exemplary meritorious service in positions of great importance and increased responsibility throughout his 22 year career and service to the U.S. Army and this nation. His career culminated as a Senior Non-Commissioned Officer Engineer Observer/Controller – Trainer for the 3rd-315th Brigade Engineer Battalion (BEB), 177th Armored Brigade; a multi-component training brigade with First Army Division East. Sergeant First Class Pierce's knowledge, technical expertise and broad depth of understanding of all critical requirements for training, readiness and combat engineer operations were instrumental in developing a concise and detailed training structure and objectives in order to

SFC Pierce expertly led and conducted over 500 successful Stryker Sweeps, clearing more than 15,000 miles of roads within the Brigade battle space. SFC Pierce's knowledge and expertise were called upon while conducting 76 improvised explosive device response missions where he personally saw to the safe detonation, and destruction of 11 IEDs and 37 UXOs, ensuring the safety of the local populace and fellow Soldiers. Most notably, SFC Pierce was personally sought after by the land-owning commander to develop the security plan for the first democratic elections in Mosul, Iraq where he led his platoon to enplace over 300 barriers and barricades to ensure that freedom and democracy was upheld with minimal incidents. Throughout this operation SFC Pierce was assigned to provide over-watch along key avenues of approach where he personally thwarted an enemy attack. He provided accurate sniper fire at ranges up to 800 meters, killing two enemy combatants, silencing the accurate rocket propelled grenade fire, allowing his platoon to maneuver out of the engagement area with minimal friendly

SFC Pierce led his platoon in over 45,000 kilometers or assured mobility operations in over twenty named operations ranging from platoon to battalion level. He was instrumental in the updating and development of the Brigade TACSOP, his expertise was called upon to update the emergency ex-filtration of each Stryker variant and emergency procedures in the event that all hatches become lodged and the standardized load plan for the engineer Stryker variant especially as it applies to route clearance. Because of his expertise in the Stryker vehicle SFC Pierce was selected to represent the engineer regiment and 4th Battalion, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team at the Stryker Symposium in Detroit Michigan. He imparted his expert knowledge to over 200 civilian contractors to include the CEO of General Dynamics Land Systems and the Chief of Engineer Stryker Variant (ESV) Program, suggesting modifications that ultimately were implemented in all updated Stryker vehicles undoubtedly improving the army's fleet of