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Afghanistan War
Posted on 02/26/2015 4:17:20 PM PST by jazusamo
The sixth living servicemember to be honored with the Medal of Honor was spied on by Army investigators over an Amazon book review that mentioned his name.
Captain Will Swenson received the Medal of Honor on Oct. 15, 2013 for his heroism during the Battle of Ganjgal in Afghanistan in 2009. His trash was rummaged through, leading up to the ceremony with President Obama, and his girlfriend and Seattle neighbors were confronted about his whereabouts.
“There’s good reason to suspect that the investigation into Swenson was really about his award, his criticism of the Army, and the hope that agents would find something to shut him up. All of the details the Army was looking to confirm were all within their reach from the beginning, without speaking to Swenson,” said a source knowledgeable about the investigation told The Daily Beast on Friday.
Capt. Swenson, who returned to active duty in April, 2014, was highly critical of commanders after he survived a Sept. 8, 2009 ambush in the the Ganjgal Valley. His nomination for the Medal of Honor was also delayed for at least two years after officials lost his version of events, Stars and Stripes reported Oct. 15, 2013. Three Army officers were eventually reprimanded months after the battle — which killed five U.S. troops — for “negligent leadership” during air support requests.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
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In the photo in the article I bet obama wanted to strangle Capt Swenson.
obama could not have as he doesn’t have the upper body strength to do so...
I agree, 0bama had to have been bent over Capt Swenson’s MOH award, the turkeys ROE cost many American lives.
Bammy knows better than to mess with better men.
Neither one looks happy to be there.
So the Army honored the Medal of Honor receiver by spying on him?..
quite dishonorable.. quite a mishmash when the Commander in Chief.. is a proven bonafide TRAITOR..
and is salting all the military services and executive branch agencys with other traitors..
and is leveraging Congress and the Supremes with other malafactors..
Yep...I never thought I’d live to see the day we’d have a turkey like him in the WH.
The Medal of Honor has always been, in part, a political award because of the honor and prestige that the public bestowed on it from the very beginning during the Civil War. Politicians and budding politicians actively lobbied to receive it, and many succeeded for deeds that deserved, at best, the accolade: Good Job! Of late, the Medal of Honor has become a pawn in the identity politics game and you have best be among the favored ethnic or economic class if you hope to be recognized at the highest level. The decisions on the award are made today by an anonymous group of Beltway warriors who closest brush with death was the dreaded traffic bottleneck at the Occoquan Creek on I-95 during the dash for home at the end of another bureaucratic day in Washington. They nickpick ad infinitum and cannot know the sound that they have never heard: bullets buzzing past your ear. They are not worthy of being in the same zip code as the men who are nominated for high honors of valor, but they do it with glee, proud in their sanctimony. A pox on them and their progeny forever.
Swenson had the courage to speak out, as he had the courage to act when death had come to play. The pinhead bureaucrats marked him for destruction and delayed his award for too long to be decent. When the award was approved, they made him wear a 10th Mountain Division combat badge and the citation attributed him to the 1st Battalion, 32d Infantry in order to promote the Public Affairs version of events. In truth, he was part of an advisory team assigned to the 1st Infantry Division and much of his challenges that day were dealing with an absent battalion commander, an indifferent battalion executive officer, and an incompetent Tactical Operations Center staff from their operational headquarters, the 1st Battalion, 32d Infantry. It was ugly and lessons needed to be learned. They were not, because appearances matter more than substance.
Courage is only recognized when it fits into the political message that civilian bureaucrats want to pass on to the American people.
For those veterans of the 1st Battalion, 32d Infantry, I do not mean to cast stones unless you were in the TOC that day. Your battalion has one of the highest casualty rates of any unit in either Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003. You did your job and more, but someone let CPT Swenson, his soldiers and Marines down and good men died. It is a story that deserves the light of day.
Amen to that and sadly, in my view, the whole truth will not come about during this administrations tenure, if ever.
This story is appalling. It’s not as though incompetence or cowardice are unheard of in combat commands but the extent to which today’s armed forces cover up their failures is overwhelming.
Obama is worse than useless as a Commander in Chief but he isn’t the guilty party here:,it’s the General Officers in this chain of command protecting their roles in this debacle and their cohorts in the Department of the Army and DoD.
We have far too many Generals and they all got to be generals through being too careful to ever do anything to get themselves in trouble. That climate breeds fear of doing anything and then enthusiastic covering of any potential of discovery of failure.
After all, how do you get your seven figure after retirement sinecure if you screw up and get caught ?
I know many current and retired general officers. Most are good men and have seen the elephant as combat leaders. The rot is with the political appointees and unfortunately those rotten apples have their effect on men in uniform who have ambitions and egos that are subject to manipulation.
“Three Army officers were eventually reprimanded months after the battle — which killed five U.S. troops — for “negligent leadership” during air support requests.”
Note that they were not drummed out of the service but had sticky notes put in their 201 files which were probably removed after 90 days.
We have far too many. Why in Heaven's name do we need 100 General Officers in the Marine Corps? Worse, I looked up the college degrees for all of them - mostly History or Political Science or Physical Education. Only one with a technical degree, civil engineering. Any wonder why we're stuck with multi-billion dollar weapons systems that don't work?
Active Duty ping.
Has anyone ever not accepted the MOH?
went to source but it looked like a top secret CIA file so I found a couple of other second hand links...
http://www.freebeacon.com/issues/army-targets-medal-of-honor-recipient-over-amazon-book-review/
http://www.newsmax.com/US/Will-Swenson-medal-of-honor-army-spying/2015/02/26/id/627087/
1/32 is part of the 10th Mountain Division.
Capt. Swenson’s review of the military command is just a snapshot.
Let’s not forget it is THIS part of the military that FReepers are criticizing (sometimes vaguely) when they do so at FR, not our fighting men & women, such as & including brave Capt. Swenson.
Of course they are, but Swenson was not assigned to either. If you look at the video taken during the action cited for his Medal of Honor, he was wearing a 1st Infantry Division patch on his left sleeve. The 1-32 Infantry TOC had control of the area of operations and they were the ones who denied his requests for fire support.
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