Marine Corps Warrant Officer Kelly Minkler received the Bronze Start medal with "V" device for valor April 18, for action he took two years earlier while serving in Helmand province, Afghanistan. According to the citation, Minkler played a critical role in disabling an improvised explosive device (IED), located the insurgent who intended to detonate it, and directed fire upon him, during a Sept. 3, 2010, patrol. He was a gunnery sergeant at the time. The IED proved to be the latest lethal wrinkle that insurgents planned to use upon convoys, containing a 25-pound directional fragmentation charge. Minkler, of Oakhurst, Calif., later analyzed the device, and developed a training regimen to look for it and avoid it for infantry squad leaders.