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#1
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Former Capt. Swenson will be awarded MOH
A date has not been set for this MOH to be awarded to former Capt Swenson, here is info so far:
Former Army Capt. Will Swenson to receive Medal of Honor for heroics in Afghanistan Sep. 16, 2013 - 06:00PM | By Dan Lamothe Staff Writer Afghan ambush heroics go unrecognized The White House announced Monday that former Army Capt. Will Swenson will receive the Medal of Honor, more than four years after he led a small contingent of U.S. military advisers through the teeth of a fierce ambush in eastern Afghanistan. Swenson was an embedded trainer for an Afghan Border Police mentor team on Sept. 8, 2009, when his unit was ambushed in Kunar province’s Sarkani district. The controversial battle sparked national outcry when it was learned U.S. forces on the ground were repeatedly denied air and artillery support they had requested. Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer received the Medal of Honor in September 2011 for heroism in the same battle. “It’s great that the Army finally got through the process and made the right decision to award him the medal,” Meyer said Monday in a phone interview. “It’s something we all fought long and hard for.” Swenson, who left active duty in February 2011, will be the sixth living service member to receive the nation’s top valor award for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan. He will receive the award in a ceremony at the White House alongside his family, White House officials said.
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Fear IT is a LIAR....... |
#2
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Here is more info on the firefight and lost award, talk about a scandal:
Originally published Monday, August 6, 2012 at 9:29 PM http://seattletimes.com/html/nationw...ofhonor07.html Questions surround Seattle man's 'lost' medal nomination Months after the first living Army officer in some 40 years was put in for the nation's highest military award for gallantry, his nomination vanished into a bureaucratic black hole. A McClatchy Newspapers investigation found troubling facts in tracking what became of the nomination of former Army Capt. William Swenson, who is from Seattle. By Jonathan S. Landay McClatchy Newspapers Army Capt. William Swenson, of Seattle, calls for air support on his radio as Afghan forces and their U.S. military trainers are ambushed in September 2009. JONATHAN S. LANDAY / MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS Army Capt. William Swenson, of Seattle, calls for air support on his radio as Afghan forces and their U.S. military trainers are ambushed in September 2009. WASHINGTON — Like other U.S. trainers with the Afghan force that day, former Army Capt. William Swenson had expected light resistance. Instead, the contingent walked into a furious six-hour gunfight with Taliban ambushers in which Swenson repeatedly charged through intense fire to retrieve wounded and dead. The 2009 battle of Ganjgal is perhaps the most remarkable of the Afghan war for its extraordinary heroism and deadly incompetence. It produced dozens of casualties, career-killing reprimands and a slew of commendations for valor. They included two Medal of Honor nominations, one for Swenson, who is from Seattle. Yet months after the first living Army officer in some 40 years was put in for the nation's highest military award for gallantry, his nomination vanished into a bureaucratic black hole. The U.S. military in Afghanistan said an investigation had found that it was "lost" in the approval process, something that several experts dismissed as improbable, saying that hasn't happened since the awards system was computerized in the mid-1970s. In fact, the investigation uncovered evidence that suggests a far more troubling explanation. It showed that as former Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer's Medal of Honor nomination from the same battle sailed toward approval despite questions about the accuracy of the account of his deeds, there may have been an effort to kill Swenson's nomination. Swenson's original nomination was downgraded to a lesser award, in violation of Army and Defense Department regulations, evidence uncovered by the investigation showed. Moreover, Swenson's Medal of Honor nomination "packet," a digitized file that contains dozens of documents attesting to his "heroism above and beyond the call of duty," disappeared from the computer system dedicated to processing awards, a circumstance for which the military said it has "no explanation." The unpublished findings, which McClatchy Newspapers has reviewed, threaten to taint a military-awards process that's designed to leave no margin of doubt or possibility of error about the heroism and sacrifices of U.S. service personnel. They also could bolster charges by some officers, lawmakers, veterans groups and experts that the process is vulnerable to improper interference and manipulation, embarrassing the military services and the Obama administration. "The whole awards system is just totally jacked up," said Doug Sterner, a military historian who's made a career of verifying the authenticity of commendations. The Pentagon and the military services deny the system is flawed, and the U.S. command in Afghanistan denied there was any attempt to downgrade Swenson's Medal of Honor nomination. Yet despite the possibility of malfeasance or worse, no further effort was made to determine what happened. The "discrepancies" posed by the evidence of a downgrade to a Distinguished Service Cross "could not be resolved," the investigators said. Swenson's nomination was resubmitted last year. President Obama must approve it before Sept. 8, the third anniversary of the battle, or it expires and can be revived only by an act of Congress. It couldn't be determined whether there was an effort to kill Swenson's Medal of Honor nomination, but there are several possible motives for doing so. Interviewed by military investigators five days after the battle, Swenson implicitly criticized top U.S. commanders in Afghanistan by blasting their rules of engagement. Angered that his repeated calls for artillery and air support were denied during the ambush, he charged that in trying to prevent civilian casualties for political reasons, the rules were costing U.S. soldiers' lives. "We are not looking at the ground fighter and why he is using these air assets," Swenson said, according to a transcript obtained by McClatchy. "We just reduced an asset that's politically unpopular. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there saying, 'I would really like that asset.' There are probably a lot of people who got killed as a result of not having that asset. "I'm not a politician. I'm just the guy on the ground asking for that ammunition to be dropped because it's going to save lives," he continued. Conflicting accounts Further, several key parts of the Army's draft account of Swenson's deeds — a central pillar of a nomination file — conflict with the Marines' account of Meyer's acts. The Army's version, a copy of which was obtained by McClatchy, said it was Swenson — not Meyer — who led the recovery of U.S. and Afghan casualties from the Ganjgal Valley. "The need for a ground recovery of all remaining casualties had now become clear," the Army's draft narrative said. "Facing this extreme and dire circumstance, and going above and beyond the call of duty, CPT Swenson gathered available combat power to lead a return up the wash." The Army's draft narrative also corroborated the reporting of a McClatchy correspondent who survived the ambush that the belated arrival of U.S. helicopters had allowed trapped American personnel to escape, and that they weren't saved by Meyer. "A team of scout helicopters arrived in the valley. CPT Swenson began to talk the aircrafts' fires onto the various enemy targets," the draft narrative said. "The enemy sporadically engaged coalition forces while they were overhead. This provided (Swenson and those with him) the slim opportunity they needed" to pull back. The problem of conflicting narratives would have been eliminated with the quiet death of Swenson's nomination, which was put in some two months before Meyer was nominated. Clearing Meyer's award would have pacified Marine leaders who blamed Marine casualties on the Army's failure to provide timely air and ground support. Moreover, they were angered by the first investigation of the battle — conducted solely by the Army — which they considered unbalanced. And then the Army nominated one of its own for the Medal of Honor. After receiving an official inquiry about its status in July 2011, Marine Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, resubmitted Swenson's nomination when a duplicate packet was found outside the computerized awards system. Allen also ordered the investigation into what happened to the original. Swenson's replacement nomination, submitted about the same time that Obama signed off on Meyer's decoration, is believed to have been approved by the Army's leadership and is awaiting a review by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta before being passed to Obama for final action. Swenson, 33, resigned from the Army in February 2011. He declined to be interviewed for this report. The evidence that his original Medal of Honor nomination was downgraded against regulations comes on top of a McClatchy investigation that found that the Marine Corps inflated its account of Meyer's deeds, attributing actions to him that were embellished or unsubstantiated or that couldn't have happened. Mission turns deadly Swenson, who served one tour in Iraq and two in Afghanistan, was an adviser to 30 Afghan border-police officers who joined some 60 Afghan troops and their Marine trainers on Sept. 8, 2009, for what was expected to be a low-risk mission to Ganjgal, a fortresslike village at the end of a U-shaped valley in eastern Kunar province. Word of the operation leaked, however, and the contingent walked into a trap set by an estimated 50 to 60 insurgents. Swenson was nominated for the Medal of Honor for helping to extricate the force and then repeatedly driving back into the kill zone to retrieve casualties under a hail of insurgent bullets and shells. In addition to the three Marines and the Navy corpsman, the battle claimed the lives of an Army sergeant, nine Afghan troops and an Afghan translator. Two dozen Afghans and four Americans, including Swenson and Meyer, were wounded. Besides the Medal of Honor nominations, the clash produced two Navy Crosses — the second-highest U.S. military decoration for gallantry — eight Bronze Stars and nine Purple Hearts. After the two investigations, two Army officers were reprimanded for dereliction of duty for spurning calls by Swenson and others for air, artillery and ground support
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Fear IT is a LIAR....... Last edited by agonyea; 16 September 2013 at 19:14. Reason: Give credit to newspaper |
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![]() Quote:
Would the above information have an effect on Dakota Meyer's award for the exact same actions? They can't rescind an award can they? The whole affair seems messy...
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"My logisticians are a humorless lot...they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay." – Alexander the Great |
#4
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Does not conflict with Meyer's award, no issue there. Both were present, both performed with extraordinary heroism, above and beyond the call of duty. War is a messy business. Meyer's award was embellished by HQ, USMC, for some brainless reason. His actions (prior to some staff pogue's embellishments) still merited the MOH.
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Life’s barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you get good at. |
#5
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Nothing new or surprising. This kind of crap has gone on for hundreds of years. The upside is that the "Combat REMFs" now have a harder time suppressing valor awards. A LOT of awards fell on the entire detachment, and they earned them. Hopefully the leaf eaters will let this one ride...
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#6
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Congratulations to him and about time.
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#7
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About damned time. It is to the government's deep shame that it has taken this long.
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I'm not entirely surprised CPT Swenson's MOH packet was lost. Went through the process of submitting a packet in '07-'08; there was not a lot of help or 'how to' information available, and everything had to be submitted in digital and hard copy. Sworn statements, photographs, imagery, storyboards, DA 1594s, DA 1156s, DD Form 1842 damage statements...the binder was as thick as the Atlanta phone book. When we routinely inquired on the status of the award, we always got the same response; "it's working its way through the channels".
Eight months (or so) later, the G1 from the new Division HQs that recently took over the MND called. They found the entire packet in a drawer- no handover or mention from the previous G1. They asked me what the hell it was all about, and do we still want to submit? The DCG-O happened to be visiting us at the same time, and took personal interest in following up (won't name him, but a good man). IMO If there's no one with at least a star on their collar to champion the award, pfft. I doubt the Captain's packet had much (if any) support until GEN Allen re-initiated the process in 2011. (*our Soldier received the DSC almost two years later) |
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I met Cpt. Swenson back in '09 having been at FOB Joyce and the co-located ABP Kandayk, and knowing of his Chain of Command from J-bad I am not surprised in the least that they sat on, and later lost the award. Good for Gen. Allen in re-initiating the process and the award getting pushed.
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#11
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Donald Zlotnik is saying on FB that Swenson doesn't deserve the MoH.
https://www.********.com/donald.zlotnik?fref=ts Donald Zlotnik: "Interesting--last night they had a special report on the evening news showing a video where Captain Swenson helped his wounded sergeant to a chopper and then kissed him on the forehead before leaving. The news reporter stated this was a show of extreme bravery under FIRE. Yet, none of the soldiers in the background were firing or even ducking down. They were standing there watching--obviously part of the rescue TEAM that arrived AFTER the Taliban left! I also found it interesting the two medics on the chopper had helmet cameras. Why? We were told the sergeant had his juggler vein severed and was suffering from a severe neck wound--yet-he WALKED to the chopper and was SITTING in the door when kissed. (One bleeds out quickly with a severed jugular and definitely does NOT walk!) Swenson is not wearing a helmet or a headset--why not? This report that was designed to support Swenson's heroics only supports the news paper reporter who said ALL of this happened AFTER the Taliban LEFT; the extraction of the wounded--both American and Afgan. Also the policing of the dead Americans occurred AFTER the Taliban left the battlefield--NOT during the fight. Swenson is credited with running a gauntlet of enemy fire to lead the remaining troops--there were only EIGHT Americans left alive and one of them was already doing the SAMETHING Swenson was doing--Meyers winning a MH--so now we are down to six soldiers--so how much area can SIX soldier cover--a football field? How far away were the Taliban? 1000 meters? (any closer and they could have taken out the armored vehicles.)--I stand by my original position--this "battle" reeks of cover-ups and troops trading valor awards." I'm not SF and am not commenting on that part of Zlotnik's history. But he sure seems to get off on tearing down other soldiers' awards for valor. Chris |
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And that goes for you and Zlotniks. Maas Last edited by Maas; 25 September 2013 at 00:55. |
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I don't believe that TX Chris was disparaging the Capt's award, rather drawing attention to this other person who seems to have a giant desire to do so....
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Losing faith in humanity, one assclown at a time.... |
#14
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SOTB is correct, I wasn't criticizing Captain Swenson or saying he shouldn't receive the MoH. I was pointing out that Zlotnik is once again attacking a valor medal recipient because he doesn't think they actually deserve it. Chris |
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Chris may not be SF, but he's a good mofo. But because he's not SF, he hasn't had a previous run-in with Z-man like the rest of us. I am SF (retired) and like lots of guys on this board, including Chris, I've been to Afghanistan. I'm not surprised to see Zlotnik insulting, demeaning and abusing recipients of valor awards. He appears to have been a one-tour-wonder in SF in 66-67 as a 1LT XO and then after a medevac time out, finished up as a CAPO (basically, supernumerary). He served in two A-camps, A-253 for a couple months and then A-443 for three more months. He later went back with conventional forces and commanded some kind of leg company or battery, I think. If he ever served in SF again I don't know about it. He never served with SOG, but pisses on them at every opportunity, never was in the Mike Force, but pisses on them, did not get a high valor award, but pisses on the guys who did. He has spent the last couple years asserting that Jon Cavaiani MOH was a collaborator as a POW (he wasn't, according to the guys that were there; and of course, Zlotnik was not there) and has expressed delight that Jon is ill, which is pretty ate up but it's so very typical of Zlotnik's evil, debased, degraded, self-aggrandizing and phony character. So naturally, this great hero and arbiter of what is what in Afghanistan, where he has never been (see a pattern emerging?) wants to piss on Will Swenson and Dakota Meyer. FUCK HIM. Not everybody who ever passed the Q was a good human being. We had J. Keith Idema, and Donald Zlotnik, to name two. Zlotnik is a little man who can only inflate himself by attacking men he's unfit to share a paragraph with. Did I say, "Fuck him?" Indeed. With a barbwire condom. |
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Shit.
I fucked up basic reading and I apologize Chris. My bad. Maas |
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No worries Maas, thanks.
Chris |
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I remember the tracking associated with an ARCOM w/V that went forward from my unit in Afghanistan, fall of 2009. I have a hard time believing that an MoH packet got 'misplaced'/lost. I'm calling shenanigans on this.
Stars and Stripes seems to be leaning the same way. http://www.stripes.com/news/us/milit...ation-1.243434 |
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Congrats and good stuff. I'm glad all the "details" were clarified, and he will get the award he deserves. I was an FO and nothing is more frustrating than not getting the support you need when it's getting real.
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#20
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Looks like Captain Swenson wants to return to active duty
http://www.*******.com/politics/2013...cmp=latestnews |
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Spent some time at Joyce/A-bad, working up in the Chowkay looking for some dudes. It's an "interesting" area to say the least. Not surprised as to the level of opposition they faced that day, but I was mystified as to the TOC' s lack of assistance. They seemed pretty squared away when we we there.
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This job isn't dangerous enough....I need to start milking rattlesnakes and jerking off tarantulas on my lunch hour. ________________________________ Otatsiihtaissiiststakio piksi makamo ta psswia |
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That was my unit(1-32 INF). All in all I think we were a very squared away unit(as do many others who later went to other units, so they had a comparison). Unfortunately, when this went down the battalion commander was on leave. The battle captain was very new and the battalion XO had to be woken up several times to come to the TOC(that should tell you everything you need to know about that). Even worse was that one of our D co.(mounted) platoons was at the entrance of the valley the whole time and were ordered by the TOC not to go in. Our scout platoon was also just inside the valley and they repeatedly requested permission to move in. IMO, some orders are meant to be disobeyed, especially when you've got uparmored gun trucks and you are sitting there watching guys drive back into the valley. Another part of the problem was that 4-4(the brigade 1-32 fell under for that deployment) had ridiculously strict ROEs when it came to using artillery. Huge shift from 2006 when it was "Flashlights in the open, fire for effect". In 2009 you had to have Brigade(at JAF) clear artillery, which took much longer and usually resulted in them requesting more information. Sometimes you got lucky and had someone in the TOC who knew exactly how to phrase stuff, but for the most part it took entirely too long to get rounds in the air. That being said, Captain Swenson is truly a hero. I'm glad the MOH was finally approved. |
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Fast forward a decade or so, and I'm a civvie in a strange situation. I have people working for me that are armed, I'm in a war zone, and I am not a mil guy nor on any fixed contract with fixed rules -- and beholden to no one. I have had the opportunity on more than one occasion to respond to mil units needing support and fortunately, everything worked out OK. Still, when we went in -- it never dawned on me not to. This has nothing to do with being a badass -- I simply didn't even have the possibility of refusing assisting in my BHG -- call it stupidity or whatever. Granted, having no rules isn't a great way to run a war -- but I certainly would not have wanted to be on the opposite end of the extreme and in the situation that Capt Swenson and his men were....
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Losing faith in humanity, one assclown at a time.... |
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I think that mentality had a trickle down effect, and it caused a lot of officers(and senior NCOs) to focus too much on "the rules" and not enough on fighting a war. That mentality then pervaded down to the platoon level in some cases, and that was it. I didn't get a chance to work with too many other platoons downrange, but I know that had it been any of the three rifle platoons in my company we would have went in. The officers were pretty squared away and a lot of the NCOs were on their second or third deployments and were short timers. If they wanted to bring us up on UCMJ for disobeying a chickenshit order in order to help out fellow Americans in a dire situation then so be it. And like you said, it's not about being a badass - it's just incomprehensible that you would do anything else. When I heard that the mounted platoon didn't move in one of the first things I thought of was, "How the fuck do you live with yourself after that?" I'd rather die trying than live with the shame. |
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[QUOTE=Max V.;1058332127]That was my unit(1-32 INF).
Huge shift from 2006 when it was "Flashlights in the open, fire for effect". There was one commander up there at the time we came through that wasn't afraid to expend everything on the "flashlights in the open" scenario. But truth to tell, he was retiring as I remember after that deployment, and didn't give a shit and as much said so. SGM Caravelho was there when we came thru as well, and nearly got 10 ringed with a rocket while walking across the FOB....Hunting intensified even more after that...LOL
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This job isn't dangerous enough....I need to start milking rattlesnakes and jerking off tarantulas on my lunch hour. ________________________________ Otatsiihtaissiiststakio piksi makamo ta psswia Last edited by CA SGT; 16 October 2013 at 18:23. Reason: grammar |
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Drive on Capt. Swenson. I hope he gets his wish.
The media is just playing two ends against the middle to sell a story. It reminds me of that scene in Hamburger Hill where SSgt. Franz chastises the "newsman" saying he has more respect for the VC because at least they pick a side, instead of just "reporting". |
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Thanks for your servicde Sir. It was an honor to watch the ceremony this afternoon. Lead on!
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#28
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Former Cpt.Swenson was awarded the MOH today:
Obama presents Afghan war vet with Medal of Honor Oct. 15, 2013 - 06:05PM | By Darlene Superville The Associated Press WASHINGTON — A former Army captain whose heroic actions in a deadly Afghan battle were captured on video received the nation’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor, from President Obama at the White House Tuesday. Obama placed the award around the neck of William D. Swenson for his actions in a lengthy battle against the Taliban in the Ganjgal Valley near the Pakistan border four years ago, which claimed the lives of five Americans, 10 Afghan army troops and an interpreter. Obama noted that although the honor has been bestowed nearly 3,500 times in U.S. history, never before had Americans been able to witness of a small part of the bravery that led to it. The video captured from cameras mounted on the helmets of evacuation helicopter pilots showed Swenson delivering a severely wounded soldier to the helicopter and placing a kiss on his head as he placed him inside. Swenson, 34, retired from the military in February 2011 and has been living in Seattle. But two U.S. officials told The Associated Press that Swenson has asked to return to active duty, and the Army is working to allow it. Swenson was serving as a trainer and mentor embedded with the Afghan National Security Forces in Kunar Province in eastern Afghanistan when they came under fire near dawn on Sept. 8, 2009. Obama recounted how Swenson dodged enemy fire, without a helmet, and risked his life to recover bodies and help save fellow troops. “Will Swenson was there for his brothers,” Obama said. The president called Swenson a “pretty low key guy,” who would rather be on a Pacific Northwest mountain trail surrounded by cedar trees instead of in front of the cameras at the White House. But Obama, perhaps thinking of the current partisan budget dispute gripping Washington, said, “I think our nation needs this ceremony today.” “In moments like this, Americans like Will remind us of what our country can be at its best, a nation of citizens who look out for one another, who meet our obligations to one another not just when it’s easy, but also when it’s hard — maybe especially when it’s hard,” Obama said. “And, Will, you’re an example to everyone in this city and to our whole country of the professionalism and patriotism that we should strive for, whether we wear a uniform or not, not just on particular occasions but all the time.” After the Ganjgal battle, Swenson complained to military leaders after the fight that many of his calls for help were rejected by superior officers. Two Army officers were reprimanded for being “inadequate and ineffective” and for “contributing directly to the loss of life” following an investigation into the day’s events. Four Americans died in the ambush: 1st Lt. Michael Johnson, 25, Staff Sgt. Aaron Kenefick, 30, Corpsman James Layton, 22, and Edwin Wayne Johnson Jr., 31, a gunnery sergeant . Army Sgt. Kenneth W. Westbrook, 41, who Swenson delivered to the helicopter with a kiss, later died from his wounds. The military says Swenson’s initial medal nomination was lost. Another man who fought in the battle, Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer, was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2011. Swenson is the sixth living recipient to be awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan. Vice President Joe Biden and first lady Michelle Obama also attended Tuesday’s medal ceremony in the East Room of the White House. Associated Press writer Lolita Baldor contributed to this report
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Fear IT is a LIAR....... |
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He was awarded the CMOH and is asking to come back into service...and that request isn't honored immediately? For petes sake couldn't the president have just ordered him back on duty then and there?
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#30
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