Staff Sergeant Dustin Michael Wright was born on September 24, 1988, in Toombs County, Georgia, one of four brothers. He spent much of his childhood in Swainsboro, where he learned farming and construction during summers on his grandfather’s 150-acre farm. “We would pull weeds on the farm and work in the warehouse packaging onions, sweeping the floor and driving forklifts,” his brother Will remembered. The boys learned to weld and build things in a workshop of their own.
Dustin later moved to Lyons, Georgia, and graduated in 2007 from Toombs County High School, where he played baseball and football. After graduation he moved in with his grandmother, Elaine Trull, to help care for her after lightning burned down the chicken house on her farm. He helped older neighbors with construction projects and became a partner with his grandfather, Rick Grisham, in the family’s light construction and rain gutter business, Southern Rain Control, which he later owned outright. He also studied engineering at Georgia Southern University and attended Fayetteville State University.
Military service ran deep in Dustin’s family, reaching back to the War of 1812. His grandfathers served in World War II, two great-uncles served in Vietnam and both of his parents served in the Army, his father as an infantry officer and his mother as a medic. In 2012 Dustin chose to continue that legacy. His brother said he wanted to give back and was searching for direction and purpose, which he found in the Army. After Advanced Individual Training and Airborne School at Fort Benning, he completed the Special Operations Preparation Course, Special Forces Assessment and Selection and the Special Forces Qualification Course. He earned his Green Beret in 2014 as a Special Forces engineer sergeant and joined Company A, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Bragg.
In 2017, on his third deployment, Dustin was serving with Operational Detachment Alpha 3212 in Niger. On October 4, 2017, the team and a platoon of about 30 Nigerien soldiers were returning to base near the village of Tongo Tongo when they were ambushed by a much larger force of Islamic State fighters. For more than four hours the team fought against overwhelming odds. Dustin maneuvered repeatedly across open terrain, through intense and accurate enemy fire, to protect and recover two of his fallen comrades. As he turned back for his teammates, he was shot and killed. He was 29. Sergeant First Class Jeremiah Johnson, Staff Sergeant Bryan Black and Sergeant La David Johnson were also killed, along with four Nigerien soldiers and the team’s interpreter.
On August 14, 2019, the commanding general of the 1st Special Forces Command presented the Silver Star to Dustin’s family at a public ceremony in Santa Claus, Georgia. His decorations also include the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Joint Service Achievement Medal, the Special Forces Tab and the Parachutist Badge. In 2025 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District, named a new hydrographic survey vessel, the Wright, in his honor.
“My brother somehow managed to always keep an open heart and cared deeply for others,” Will said. “Even in his final moment, he chose to help others, and that is what made him truly special.” Dustin is survived by his father, Arnold Edgar “Ardie” Wright, his mother Terri Trull Criscio and her husband A.J., his brothers Ardie, Will, Zach and Steven, his grandparents and a large and loving extended family.
Dustin maneuvered numerous times, across open terrain, through intense and accurate fire from the enemy, to protect and recover two of his fallen comrades.
Official Account of the Tongo Tongo Ambush
Sources
- DVIDS / USACE Savannah District: A Legacy that Floats: Remembering Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright (May 2025)
- U.S. Army (1st SFC(A)): Sgt. Dustin M. Wright to receive the Silver Star (Aug. 13, 2019)
- Ronald V. Hall Funeral Home: Obituary for Dustin Michael Wright
- Green Beret Foundation: Dustin Wright
- Family-provided records on file with MVF: Dustin Wright bio
