The Stream’s own Tom Sileo has won the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s (MCHF) General Oliver P. Smith Award for his article “The Protector: Honoring LCpl. Skip Wells, Killed in Chattanooga.”

According to MCHF’s website, The General Oliver P. Smith Award recognizes a “distinguished example of local news reporting by an individual that illuminates the U.S. Marine Corps relationship with local communities.”

In his heart-tugging article, Sileo recounted the memorial of Lance Cpl. Squire “Skip” Wells, one of four Marines and a sailor murdered in the Islamist terror attack in Chattanooga last July. In his own words, Sileo “watched a devastated community honor a 21-year-old hometown hero.”

The foundation will present its 2016 awards on April 23, during a special ceremony at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia. Other award recipients include former Sen. John W. Warner, who will be receiving The John A. Lejeune Recognition for Exemplary Leadership, and Lt. Col. Stanton S. Coerr, who will be receiving The Robert A Gannon Award for his book Rubicon — The Poetry of War.