Oregon Public Broadcasting

They spent 15 months in some of the toughest and most dangerous parts of Iraq. Now the Arrowhead Stryker Brigade from Fort Lewis is back. The Washington State Senate honored the decorated soldiers from that brigade recently. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins sat down with one of the soldiers.

Staff Sgt. Shawn McGuire is like a cat with nine lives. During two tours in Iraq, he was shot in the arm and in the hand. He took shrapnel to the neck from a roadside bomb. And suffered shrapnel wounds to his shoulder from a rocket propelled grenade.
 
Austin Jenkins: “You’ve been shot twice and blown up twice basically.”
 
Shawn McGuire: “I’ve been blown up several times, but just only injured during two of them.”
 
Austin Jenkins: “And how old are you?”
 
Shawn McGuire: “Thirty two.”
 
Austin Jenkins: “What’s the rest of your life going to hold?.”
 
Shawn McGuire: “I don’t know. Hopefully I don’t have to go back over there because I’m tired of it. I don’t know. Ya, I’m just tired of it.”
 
McGuire has been awarded three purple hearts with one more on the way, two Bronze Stars and a Silver Star – the third highest combat award.

McGuire was one of several Silver Star recipients honored by the Washington State Senate.