Purple Heart awarded to Air Force Maj. Gregg Stone, 23 years after deadly Camp Pennsylvania attack

Air Force Major Gregg Stone was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart on Wednesday — more than 23 years after he was killed in a grenade attack by a fellow American soldier at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait.

Stone’s son Joshua accepted the medal on his father’s behalf. Marine Corps General Christopher J. Mahoney, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presented the award.

“Whether it’s 23 hours, 23 months, or 23 years, we will always recognize those who sacrifice in defense of this great nation,” Mahoney said.

Mahoney presented Purple Hearts to a total of six soldiers who were part of the 2003 attack.

“To the recipients, your courage, your sacrifice, and your dedication inspire us,” Mahoney said. “To the families, we know you bear the weight. You bear it differently, but the weight is the same. Thank you for your resilience, your sacrifice, and your unwavering support. You strengthen us.”

The 2003 Camp Pennsylvania attack

In the early morning hours of March 23, 2003, as the U.S. invasion of Iraq was just beginning, Sergeant Hasan Karim Akbar threw four hand grenades into three tents where members of the 101st Airborne Division were sleeping at Camp Pennsylvania. He then fired his rifle at fellow soldiers in the ensuing chaos.

Stone, 40, was serving with the Idaho Air National Guard as an air liaison officer with the 101st Airborne. He was in one of those tents and died of his injuries. Akbar was convicted and sentenced to death. He remains at Fort Leavenworth.

A 23-year fight for recognition

Stone’s brother, KIRO Newsradio News Director Frank Lenzi, said the military initially declined to award Purple Hearts to any of the attack’s casualties because the incident was not classified as occurring in a combat zone, a distinction the family never accepted.

“They were getting ready to make the famous march to Baghdad. So how that’s not part of a combat zone, I don’t know,” Lenzi said. “It’s just incredible to me, and I’m very thankful that people have stayed on this for 23 years to finally make this happen.”

According to Stars and Stripes, the victims of the 2003 attack were initially not awarded Purple Hearts because it was not carried out by enemy forces and was instead labeled an insider attack.

The Pentagon has not said if any evidence linking Akbar to an enemy state or organization had come to light, Stars and Stripes reported.

Earlier Purple Heart ceremonies in 2026

Other soldiers involved in the attack that morning were awarded Purple Hearts at ceremonies earlier this year.

“Today is about honoring duty and sacrifice, but most importantly, today is about getting things right,” Army Maj. Gen. David Gardner said at a ceremony in May at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, according to Stars and Stripes. “Our country does not always get it right, but great leadership will not quit until they get it right.”

At that ceremony, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pinned Purple Hearts on nine of the soldiers wounded that day.

“It’s … about lifting them up, so that we lift them up to the rest of the country as a demonstration of what matters, of a demonstration of service and a life well lived, and a moment in time where [they] showed something extraordinary,” the defense secretary said, according to Stars and Stripes.

The Army awarded Purple Hearts to three more of the soldiers involved in the attack, including Captain Christopher Seifert, who Akbar shot and killed after he threw the grenades into the tents, WKRN-TV reported earlier this week.

‘He Was Captain America’

Stone’s sister, Tammy Geske, said the family waged its own campaign, writing letters to anyone who might listen.

“I wrote so many. I didn’t even know who I was writing to, because it’s like, seriously, he was killed, and he doesn’t get the Purple Heart?” Geske said. “People were trying to get the Purple Heart, but 23 years, long time.”

Lenzi recalled the Saturday morning in 2003 when his mother called after seeing CNN coverage of the attack from a reporter embedded with Stone’s unit.

“She said, ‘Hey, this thing happened, and I think that’s your brother’s unit.’ And I was like, no way,” Lenzi said. “I just kind of clicked into news mode. I’m like, I’m gonna make some calls. And I’m trying to make calls and get it confirmed just to prove to her, no, it’s not Gregg, and I couldn’t get anything confirmed.”

Geske saw the report on CNN before getting the official notification that her brother had suffered wounds that he would die from two days later.

“I turn on the TV, and they’re running with the stretchers, and I see an arm,” Geske said. “And I said, ‘That’s Gregg,’ because of the watch …. we saw the whole thing on TV.”

‘Make Sure the Story Is Told Right’

Lenzi said his mother long ago charged him and his sister with making sure their brother’s story is told accurately.

“She’s like, ‘This is never going to go away. So you and your sister need to be the ones to make sure the story is told right,'” he said.

Asked what she would want someone to know if they walked past her brother’s gravestone at Arlington National Cemetery, Geske paused.

“He really was a good guy,” she said. “I was always so jealous of him because he was Captain America and I wasn’t.”

Stone was a 20-year active and reserve veteran of the Air Force.

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