Stories of Honor: Iraq War veteran Josh Manning received SEAL Team coin

During the first Gulf War in 1990-91, Missoula Hellgate High student Josh Manning protested against the United States’ military involvement in the Middle East.

Sixteen years later, after the second Gulf War and during his second tour of duty in Iraq, U.S. Army Sgt. Manning was recognized with a special coin from the Navy SEAL team he was working with.

Manning’s 2007 Navy SEAL Team 2 special coin, received from its commander.

Photo provided

After graduating from Hellgate in 1992, Manning attended the University of Montana for a creative writing program. He later studied journalism and English at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

Next came a job as a news reporter for the Idaho Falls Register, a marriage to Patricia Klanke and the birth of a son. Then the Twin Towers were leveled on Sept. 11, 2001.

After hearing an NPR report about military intelligence, the 27-year old Manning, with a new toddler at home, enlisted in the Army three months later. “My recruiter promised me I would get into military intelligence,” he texted this reporter recently. “And boy, did I

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