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Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith, 33, of Tampa, Fla., served in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, as well as in Bosnia, before he was killed in action in Iraq. (ABCNEWS) American Hero Sgt. Paul Smith Died Fighting Massive Iraqi Onslaught; Saved Fellow Soldiers B A G H D A D, Iraq, April 28 — According to the roll books, Army 1st Sgt. Paul Smith was just one of the roughly 130 U.S. troops who died during the war with Iraq. But to the men and women he served with, Smith is a hero. Smith, a 33-year-old from Tampa, Fla., with a wife and two children, died protecting his unit from a massive Iraqi onslaught during the battle for Baghdad's international airport. Soon, he may receive posthumously the highest award that can be bestowed on a member of the U.S. armed forces — the Congressional Medal of Honor. It was April 4, and U.S. forces had just battled through the south of Iraq to reach its capital. Only five days later, on April 9, Iraqis aided by U.S. troops would pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square in a scene that would be replayed around the world. But when Smith and his unit, the Bravo Company of the 11th Engineer Battalion, came under attack, they were doing something more ordinary: preparing to turn the Republican Guard complex adjacent to the airport into a POW camp. Bravo Company was not prepared for heavy combat. Among their vehicles was an armored bulldozer, a lightly armored tracked vehicle known as an M113, and a Humvee. When they began to use the M113 to knock down a gate of the complex, they discovered the complex had not been secured. An estimated 100 Iraqi soldiers began attacking Bravo Company, which numbered, at most, 20 men. Sgt. Kevin Yetter remembered the moment the attack began. "Sgt. Smith come up and looked out and I was with him and the words he said was, 'We're in a world of hurt,' " Yetter said. Within minutes, Yetter and two others lay wounded. Scrambling Into Action It was as if they punched a hole in a hornet's nest. "There were people trying to come through the gate here and there were people coming in over the wall," said Smith's commanding officer, 1st Sgt Tim Campbell. Amid the chaos, Smith took charge. "Sgt. Smith ran out and said, 'OK, give me some cover fire!' " Pvt. Gary Evans recalled. "He wasn't a person who said, 'Go do this.' He was a person who said, 'Cover me while I go do this.' " Smith charged toward the M113, which had mounted atop it the biggest gun available to the unit: a .50-caliber machine gun. With Iraqi attackers coming from multiple directions, Smith raked bullets back and forth across his attackers. "He would shoot at that tower, and then he would shoot out here, and these guys would come back and shoot at him, he would shoot back at the tower," Campbell said. The fortified tower, with its thick concrete walls and slit-like windows, was the most troublesome target, but Smith managed to keep the snipers inside at bay. Cambell said: "We would have probably all got killed if he hadn't of kept that tower there suppressed. They were firing from both those side windows and that front window." On top of it all, Campbell said, "he was standing up wide open, I mean from his waist up. I mean he's fairly tall — he had everybody else down inside." Smith's actions distracted the Iraqis enough that everyone in the unit could find cover. "He kept asking me to reload him with .50-cal ammo, and after reloading one can, he told me all right, get back down. He was looking out for my safety. He allowed everyone to get out of there alive," said Pvt. Michael Seaman. Epitome of a Soldier He also stalled the Iraqi attack enough that reinforcements could arrive. Smith saved everyone — but himself. Evans was the first one to learn of Smith's sacrifice. "I went to grab him, he fell back, single gunshot wound to the head," Evans said. The loss quickly reverberated through his unit. Bravo Company knows it can rest safely today because of Smith's actions. "He's the epitome of what I look for in a soldier," Campbell said. "He's — he was a good man. When you think in terms of how many soldiers he saved, and he died doing it, it's just phenomenal to me."