THOMASVILLE — Despite earning a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star, Josh Holt’s biggest reward still awaits him. The senior airman (E-4), a 2006 Thomas County Central High School graduate, hopes to be home before Christmas.

On Oct. 8, Holt was manning the gun in an MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle when it struck an explosive device during an attack on a training convoy in Baghdad, Iraq. The explosion tore through the MRAP, killing the driver and a front-seat passenger. A third occupant was trapped in the vehicle.

Despite heavy arms fire from nearby rooftops in the southern portion of the city, Holt helped rescue 15 wounded warriors, including a few Iraqi nationals training to join their country’s security force. A military spokesman in Kuwait said Holt, who was thrown from the MRAP, was personally responsible for saving seven lives. He did all this with a piece of shrapnel in his neck.

Holt couldn’t disclose all the particulars of his ill-fated mission because of its classified nature. He revealed what he could via telephone while in an airport in Baltimore. Md.

“One of our staff sergeants yelled at me to stay put and not move around, but we were taking pretty heavy fire,” he said. “It was coming from everywhere, from the rooftops and the sides of the road. I didn’t feel like I did anything special. I just made a few trips to make sure all my guys were safe.

“I was just doing my job.”

Holt, who suffered a concussion in the blast, spent two weeks recovering at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. He will spend a few days at Little Rock Air Force Base in Little Rock, Ark., before joining his father, Frank Holt, and mother, Rose Chaves, in Thomasville for the holidays.

“I’m putting in for leave, so I hope to be home in two weeks,” Holt said. “As far as being stateside, I’m pretty sure they are going to give me a medical retirement. I have turned in the package for it, so I’m just waiting to hear.

“Man, I can’t wait to get home.”