Mississippi Soldier Honored by Department of Justice

Sgt Joey Ford receives Department of Justice Award

A Gulfport soldier has received a distinguished award from the United States Department of Justice for his service in Iraq. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports.

In April of 2007 Sgt Joey Ford was providing security for a rule of law mission in Tikrit when he was injured. Sgt Ford was protecting Department of Justice officials as they attempted to set up an Iraqi Major Crimes court to try suspected terrorists. Charlie Spillers an assistant u.s. attorney says often times the soldiers who assist in protecting department of Justice officials know where they are going and how long they will be there, but are not let in on the details,

“This is what it’s doing, it’s enabling courts to get up and running it’s enabling judges to feel like they are protected and can fairly and impartially decide cases. And citizens to feel like they have access to court and they have a functioning government. So that’s why this is significant thanking Sergeant Ford and the military for their service in Iraq which helps further the rule of law.”

Sgt Ford is now a member of the Mississippi army National Guard 155th infantry. Ford says while he appreciates the award, he doesn’t feel like he did anything special,

“Honestly I don’t deserve it anymore than anybody else deserves anything else. I did what I supposed to do what I signed up to do and I enjoyed it and there was many people who gave more and done more.”

But General Phil Fisher says for any solider to receive this award for the Department of Justice is an incredible testament to their service,

“This is huge, this is not something that just happens. One of the District Attorney’s noted that the seal that he received, generally those don’t come out until someone retires, and here he is a very young man, and he now has one to hang over his fireplace, and I think that is very significant and very important.”

Since the Iraqi crimes court opened in Tikrit in September 2007, 100s of cases have been heard and tried and rule of law is now fully functioning in that province.