Medal of Honor recipient braved gunfire to retrieve bodies of the fallen
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[quote]Washington (CNN) -- A shaky video captured only a few moments of William D. Swenson's actions during a brutal, hours-long battle in Afghanistan: Kissing a badly wounded comrade on the forehead as he helped load the soldier into a helicopter.
"This may be the first time we bear witness to a small portion of the action" of a Medal of Honor recipient, President Barack Obama said Tuesday as he awarded the now-retired Army captain the nation's highest military honor for his actions in the Ganjgal Valley in 2009.
Swenson, 34, of Seattle, became the sixth living receipt from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to receive the honor, and it is only the second time in a half-century that two men from the same battle have been awarded the medal.
Swenson, who retired from the Army in 2011, is being awarded the medal for his actions on September 8, 2009, in the Battle of the Ganjgal Valley in Afghanistan's Kunar province. The battle claimed the lives of four American soldiers, 10 Afghan soldiers and an Afghan interpreter.[/quote]
[url]http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/15/us/swenson-medal-of-honor/index.html?hpt=hp_t2[/url]
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