Christopher N. Glover, left, receives the Bronze Star medal with Valor during a ceremony at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on May 12, 2026. Glover received the medal for his heroism during military operations against a hostile force in Afghanistan on May 6, 2007, while he was serving as a major in the U.S. Army in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. (Leonard Fitzgerald/U.S. Army)
For nearly two decades, returning home to his family alive after an insider attack that killed two of his friends in Afghanistan was enough for retired Lt. Col. Christopher Glover.
But now, along with his record of service, the former soldier has the recognition of the Army that his brave actions likely saved a life.
At a Pentagon ceremony in mid-May, Glover received a Bronze Star Medal with Valor device, the fourth-highest U.S. award for combat bravery. The award was presented by Michael Lacey, the service’s deputy assistant secretary for review boards.
The ceremony came nearly 19 years to the day of the attack. Lacey recounted how he had to twist Glover’s arm to get him to request a records review for the award.
Both men lead the Army agency responsible for correcting errors and injustices in personnel actions. The board that reviewed Glover’s application did so anonymously and did not know he was a member of the agency, Lacey said.
In Afghanistan, Glover was part of the U.S. training mission responsible for overseeing the Afghan forces running detention centers where Taliban fighters and other militants were held. He was a major at the time.
On May 6, 2007, he was in the lead vehicle of a convoy leaving Pol-e-Charkhi Prison, a compound layered with checkpoints and security guards on the outskirts of Kabul, when suddenly an Afghan soldier raised his AK-47 and fired on Glover’s vehicle.
Pol-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan is seen from above in this undated photo. The detention center was the site of a 2007 insider attack that killed two and injured two, including retired Lt. Col. Christopher Glover. (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction)
The barrage wounded Glover and killed Master Sgt. Wilberto Sabalu Jr., the driver. The attacker reloaded and sprayed bullets into the second vehicle, killing Col. James Harrison — their commander — and wounding an Air Force officer named Morgan Ellison, then a first lieutenant.
Two bullets had gone through Glover’s body armor and lodged in his right arm, causing extensive nerve damage and rendering it “completely useless at the time,” Lacey said.
But as the attacker paused to reload again, Glover got out, took aim “as best as he could” with his MP5 submachine gun using his remaining good hand, and fired shots that sent the attacker running.
“His actions disrupted the attacker’s assault, drew fire away from his fellow soldiers and in all likelihood saved the young Air Force officer’s life because the assailant was preparing to finish the job,” Lacey said.
Afghan soldiers responding to the attack later killed the man, described in a statement at the time as a “rogue soldier,” Stars and Stripes reported days after it happened.
After moving the convoy to cover, Glover used his good arm to radio for the quick reaction force and get the prison to open the locked gate so the survivors could get to safety.
But when Lacey first asked him about a Purple Heart he earned for his wounds, Glover downplayed it, focusing instead on the loss of Harrison and Sabalu.
By then, Glover was director and chairman of the parole and clemency board of the Army Review Boards Agency, the service’s highest administrative level for review of personnel actions, which Lacey has overseen since late 2024.
Then on a trip to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., Glover’s reticence only made Lacey more curious, leading him to read the after-action report and speak with Ellison over the ensuing weeks.
Based on what he learned, he went back to Glover to ask him why he never received an award for actions “about as valorous as anything I’ve heard of.”
“I got to come home to my wife and my kids,” Lacey recalled Glover saying. “I got all I needed from that. I don’t need an award. I don’t need anything but the precious second chance I got with my life.”
A few weeks after that, Lacey was still unsatisfied and urged him to apply for award consideration, but Glover again resisted, wanting all recognition focused on the sacrifices of the two soldiers who were killed.
Harrison, a husband and father of three, had pulled back his retirement package for the Afghanistan assignment despite having recently finished a high-profile assignment as commandant of the disciplinary barracks at Leavenworth.
He is the highest-ranking U.S. military police officer killed in Afghanistan, Lacey said. One of Harrison’s adult sons, who later also served with Glover, is now a major in the Army and attended the ceremony.
Ultimately, Lacey persuaded Glover to seek the award for his family, he told the audience.
“We fix the Army’s mistakes; that’s what we do,” he said, referring to the review board agency over which Glover was named deputy director earlier this year. “And we fixed this mistake.”
After the attack, Glover was evacuated back to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where his wife stayed in a Fisher House facility to be by his side for the duration of his long recovery there, Lacey said.
“The wounds were serious and extensive,” he said. “He showed me an X-ray a couple weeks ago. The two bullets are still there. They couldn’t be operated on because they’re so close to a nerve.”
To this day, Glover still does not have full use of his right hand, he said.
In his own remarks at the ceremony, Glover said that he has “not necessarily gotten beyond” the events of that day, but has come to terms with them and has learned to carry on “because I’ve accepted that I did all I could.”
Glover dedicated the award first to his slain friends’ memories, then to his own wife and children in the audience.
“Because that day, when things were bad and I had a chance to fight, they were worth getting back to,” he said.
