SPRINGFIELD — In more than four years as a military police officer at the Springfield Air National Guard Base, Robert Bragg has never had to pull a gun on anybody.

But for pulling his personal 9mm on a pair of gunmen in Dayton last summer, he was awarded the Ohio Guard's highest honor.

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Ohio Governor Ted Strickland awards Stf. Sgt. Robert Bragg with the Ohio Cross during a presentation ceremony at the Springfield Ohio Air National Guard Base Sunday.Click to enlarge

Staff Sgt. Bragg, a 2001 Tecumseh High graduate, was given the Ohio Cross Sunday, April 6, by Gov. Ted Strickland.

"This is something special," Bragg said before the ceremony at the base.

But for Bragg, Sunday's ceremony — complete with a reception and photo op with the governor himself — was bittersweet.

"As far as the pain," he said, "it doesn't make it any easier."

Off duty at the time, Bragg was sitting on his Dayton porch last August when he heard shots fired, then saw two men in ski masks emerge from the Covault Market and Coin Laundry. Roger Covault, 70, and Robert T. Harris, 53, were shot and killed during the robbery.

Armed with courage and, as wing commander Col. Mike Roberts put it Sunday, "the hardware guaranteed by the Second Amendment," Bragg went into action.

Bragg personally forced one of the men to surrender.

"I never thought about my life being in danger until it was over," Bragg, 25, confessed.

Just the ninth recipient of the Ohio Cross, the medal honors members of the Guard and Reserves for gallantry.

A senior at Wright State University, Bragg still lives at the same place — which serves as a daily reminder of the incident.

"It's hard for me to even look down that end of the street," he explained. "It's still very real."

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352

or amcginn@coxohio.com.

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