
Joshua Wheeler (22 November 1975-22 October 2015) was a Master Sergeant in the US Army's Delta Force who was awarded the Purple Heart after assisting captured YPG soldiers in a prison escape from Kirkuk Province in Iraq.
Biography[]
Joshua Wheeler was born on 22 November 1975 in Roland, Oklahoma. He joined the US Army in 1995 and served in the US 75th Ranger Regiment during the Afghanistan War and Iraq War, being deployed eleven times in support of combat operations. On 22 October 2015, he was deployed with Delta Force to support a YPG assault on an Islamic State prison complex 4 miles north of Hawija, Iraq, one of the 30 Green Berets who took part in the attack. Wheeler was killed in the assault while freeing hostages from the Islamic State, and he was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart for his bravery in the assault, in addition to his 11 Bronze Stars.