Medal of Honor recipient: This belongs to comrades

AP via Yahoo News ^ | 6/26/14 | RIK STEVENS

[Kartographer]

Ryan Pitts will wear the nation's highest award for combat valor, but the humble and soft-spoken Medal of Honor recipient who continued to fight after being wounded in one of Afghanistan's bloodiest battles insisted Thursday that the medal belongs to all of his comrades who fought and died that day.

Pitts, now a 28-year-old married father of one, will receive the medal next month at the White House.

The citation says Pitts fought off enemy fighters on July 13, 2008, in Wanat, Afghanistan. Despite losing blood from wounds in both legs and an arm, he continued to fire at about 200 Taliban fighters and guided air strikes that helped repel the attack. He also used a tactic known as "cooking off" grenades, pulling the pin and holding it longer than usual so the enemy couldn't throw it back.

[Kartographer]

"Pitts, who has fully recuperated from his injuries and is in business development at a software firm, was accompanied Thursday by his wife, Amy. His face brightened when asked about life since the battle, clearly happy about his upcoming second wedding anniversary and their 1-year-old son, Lucas.

When he someday tells the boy about what happened in Afghanistan, he said, "I don't want to tell him about my experiences. I want to tell him about the other guys."

A common trait among REAL Heroes, they would rather talk about their brothers especial those that did make it back than themselves.

[BigEdLB]

Thumbs Up, soldier, job well done.

[yarddog]

I have never been in the military but I have noticed that soldiers who have been in real combat together seem to form a bond. It doesn’t matter if they are Germans, Americans, Japanese etc.

The first time I really thought about it was reading the book by Xenophon about the 10,000 Greek mercenaries who fought their way home after being stranded a 1000 miles from home and surrounded by enemies.

[SandRat]

PING

[ComputerGuy]

The bond between brothers-in-arms is the strongest that I know of. If you haven’t been there, you can’t know just how strong it really is. Even after nearly fifty years, hundreds of my brothers get together at least every two years. The bond gets stronger as the years go by.

[ConorMacNessa]

SSG Ryan M. Pitts, USA (MOH)

America demands Justice for the Fallen of Benghazi!

O stranger, tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here, obedient to their command.

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[Kartographer]

This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be rememberèd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England, now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

[bjorn14]

I hope Øbama doesn’t spit on him while giving him the medal.