Michael Burghardt

Master Sergeant Michael Burghardt is a retired United States Marine Corps explosive ordnance disposal technician.

A native of Fountain Valley, California, Michael Burghardt was born in 1970. His father, Josef Burghardt, served three combat tours in Vietnam, earning three Bronze Stars for bravery and three Purple Hearts for wounds received in action.

MSgt Burghardt came to prominence in 2005 when the Omaha World-Herald published a photograph of him in Ramadi, Iraq making a defiant gesture. On September 19, 2005, Burghardt was injured by an improvised explosive device near Ramadi. He refused to be carried away on a stretcher and instead walked under his own power to the waiting medevac. MSgt Burghardt was a Gunnery Sergeant at the time of the photograph.