Seminole County soldier Alwyn Cashe honored for Iraq battlefield heroism

Alwyn Cashe’s story still runs through Seminole County streets, buildings and memory. Born in Sanford and raised in Oviedo, the Army sergeant’s name now marks the U.S. Army Reserve center in Sanford and the Oviedo Post Office, two public places where his sacrifice remains part of daily life for residents who grew up hearing that one of their own went to Iraq and did not come home.

Cashe was serving as a platoon sergeant with Company A, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division when a roadside bomb struck his Bradley Fighting Vehicle near Samarra, Iraq, on Oct. 17, 2005. Even after being badly burned, he repeatedly went back into the burning vehicle to pull out trapped soldiers. He saved six soldiers before his injuries claimed his life, and military records say burns covered 72% of his body.

The Army says Cashe enlisted on July 18, 1989, and deployed in the Gulf War in 1991, then again in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and 2005. He grew up in poverty in Oviedo, a detail that has become part of how his family and supporters tell his story: a local boy who made it into the Army, led under fire and put others first when every second counted. For years, his heroism remained the focus of a long campaign by relatives, veterans and advocates who pushed for a higher recognition than the Silver Star he first received.

That effort ended at the White House on Dec. 16, 2021, when President Joe Biden posthumously awarded Cashe the Medal of Honor to his widow, Tamara Cashe. The upgrade followed bipartisan support and sustained public advocacy, turning a family fight for recognition into one of the most prominent military honor cases connected to Central Florida.

In Seminole County, the legacy has been made physical. The Sanford Army Reserve center was named for Cashe in 2014 and later rededicated after his Medal of Honor recognition. The Oviedo Post Office was renamed in his honor in 2019. In 2024, the Orlando VA Healthcare System marked his memory with a plaque and ceremony in Lake Baldwin, adding another civic site to a countywide tribute that keeps Cashe’s example visible for younger readers, veterans and neighbors who want a local model of duty, sacrifice and service.