SGM Thomas Patrick Payne with President Trump
Recently, I devoted a Profile of Valor to Medal of Honor recipient Sgt Dakota Meyer (USMC), who returned to duty at age 36 after being discharged in 2010.
I noted that three other recent Army Medal of Honor recipients remained on active duty after receiving their Medals: SGM Thomas Payne, SGM Matthew Williams, and LTC William Swenson.
The first among them, Sergeant Major Thomas Payne, is a native of South Carolina, the son of a police officer, and brother of two other active-duty service members, one Army and the other Air Force.
He described his hometown near Columbia as a place where he could hunt, fish, and play sports in order to stay out of trouble. Graduating from Lugoff-Elgin High School in 2002 after the 9/11 Islamist attack on our nation, he was inspired to enlist in the Army, hoping to become a Ranger.
Over the next year, he completed One Station Unit Training, the Basic Airborne Course, and the Ranger Indoctrination Program (now the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program) at Fort Benning, Georgia. He then served as a rifleman and sniper team leader with Company A, 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment until 2007. After completing SpecOps training, he was assigned to Special Operations Command’s 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment — Delta at Fort Bragg, and has served with USASOC in the years since as a SpecOps team member, assistant team sergeant, team sergeant, and instructor.
In 2010, while serving in Afghanistan, then-SSG Pat Payne suffered debilitating injuries from a grenade detonation, but with the encouragement of his father and wife-to-be, Alison, he fully recovered and was restored to active duty. In 2011, he married Alison, and in 2012, then-SFC Payne and his SF teammate, MSG Kevin Foutz, returned to Ft. Benning, where they won the grueling 60-hour Army Best Ranger Competition.
It was in October 2015, during a deadly mission to rescue hostages from an Islamic State prison in Kirkuk Province, Iraq, that Pat would earn a Medal of Honor. He would become the first living Delta Force recipient and the third Delta Force recipient after MSG Gary Gordon and SFC Randy Shughart, both of whom were killed in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, as immortalized in the film “Black Hawk Down.”
According to his Medal of Honor citation, which I have included in full to get a sense of his daunting actions:
"On October 22, 2015, during a daring nighttime hostage rescue … Payne led a combined assault team charged with clearing one of two buildings known to house the hostages. With speed, audacity, and courage, he led his team as they quickly cleared the assigned building, liberating 38 hostages. Upon hearing a request for additional assaulters to assist with clearing the other building, Sergeant Payne, on his own initiative, left his secured position, exposing himself to enemy fire as he bounded across the compound to the other building from which entrenched enemy forces were engaging his comrades. Payne climbed a ladder to the building’s roof, which was partially engulfed in flames, and engaged enemy fighters below with grenades and small arms fire. He then moved back to ground level to engage the enemy forces through a breach hole in the west side of the building. Knowing time was running out for the hostages trapped inside the burning building, Sergeant Payne moved to the main entrance, where heavy enemy fire had thwarted previous attempts to enter. He knowingly risked his own life by bravely entering the building under intense enemy fire, enduring smoke, heat, and flames to identify the armored door imprisoning the hostages. Upon exiting, Sergeant Payne exchanged his rifle for bolt cutters, and again entered the building, ignoring the enemy rounds impacting the walls around him as he cut the locks on a complex locking mechanism. His courageous actions motivated the coalition assault team members to enter the breach and assist with cutting the locks."
His citation continues:
"After exiting to catch his breath, he reentered the building to make the final lock cuts, freeing 37 hostages. Sergeant Payne then facilitated the evacuation of the hostages, even though ordered to evacuate the collapsing building himself, which was now structurally unsound due to the fire. Sergeant Payne then reentered the burning building one last time to ensure everyone had been evacuated. He consciously exposed himself to enemy automatic gunfire each time he entered the building. His extraordinary heroism and selfless actions were key to liberating 75 hostages during a contested rescue mission that resulted in 20 enemies killed in action."
His citation concludes:
“Sergeant First Class Payne’s gallantry under fire and uncommon valor are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, the United States Special Operations Command, and the United States Army.”
Over the course of his career, Pat has been deployed 17 times, initially with Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, then Operation New Dawn, Operation Inherent Resolve, and Operation Resolute Support.
In 2017, Pat returned to the U.S. to complete his undergraduate degree at Norwich University. He, Alison, and their three children then moved to Fort Bragg, where in 2021 he became a special operations instructor until his recent retirement.
Notably, Pat Payne and fellow MoH recipient Dakota Meyer appeared at a Senate confirmation hearing to show their support for Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.
SGM Thomas Patrick Payne: Your example of valor — a humble American Patriot defending Liberty for all above and beyond the call of duty, and in disregard for the peril to your own life — is eternal.
“Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
Live your life worthy of his sacrifice.