Specialist SPC Ryan E. Martinette received the Bronze Star Medal for Valor today at Fort Lee for heroism as a medic in Iraq in 2006. Martinette, 23, was wounded by a roadside bomb while treating an Iraqi civilian who was injured in an explosion in west Baghdad.

Martinette also has received the Purple Heart for combat wounds to his arm and leg.

Medics "are special soldiers," said Maj. Gen. James E. Chambers, commander of Fort Lee and the Army's Combined Arms Support Command, "and this is one of them," in presenting the Bronze Star.

The soldier is the son of Cecil V. "Buddy" Martinette Jr., who has just retired as Hanover County's assistant county administrator.

Martinette is assigned to Fort Lee's Kenner Army Health Clinic.