FINALLY, former Army Captain Will Swenson will receive the Medal of Honor on October 15, 2013 for his courageous actions in one of the most hard-fought battles to-date of the Afghan war; the Ganjgal Valley in Kunar Province on Sept. 8, 2009. And yes, this was the same battle in which Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer, in 2011, received the MOH for his own exemplary actions on that awful and bloody day when 5 Americans died.

Here’s what happened: It was a six-hour battle which has been written and talked about for years now. Apparently, 50 insurgents who were deeply entrenched in the mountainside village of Ganjgal, ambushed a group of about 60 Afghan soldiers, 20 Afghan border police and 13 military trainers shortly after dawn as the group was on its way to meet village elders. According to accounts, the enemy fighters appeared to know they were coming, and launched a fierce attack of small-arms and rocket fire.

Captain Swenson was an embedded trainer working with an Afghan Border Police mentor team on the day they were ambushed. He’s credited with while under severe and intense enemy fire, repeatedly helping U.S. forces get out of a kill zone and in helping to find and recover the bodies of the four military advisers killed in the ambush. There were no reinforcements or fire support that day and Captain Swenson endured a six-hour firefight, literally fighting his way out of it. You can read more details of what happened here. You really need to, actually. At least eight other U.S. service members in that battle have received Bronze Stars with V device for heroism that day.

It’s what American Exceptionalism is all about.

And BTW: that battle sparked a huge national outcry, even from Captain Swenson and Sgt. Meyer, when it was learned U.S. forces on the ground were repeatedly denied air and artillery support they had requested. Sound familiar? It should.

Fast forward to now.

A video has surfaced of that day showing Captain Swenson’s bravery…and tenderness… in the midst of hell. It’s not a re-enactment. It’s real. And you will definitely need a lot of Kleenex, and maybe booze, to get through this.

It’s a tough watch, I know. I’m so very glad that Captain Will Swenson is being recognized with the MOH, finally, for his exceptional valor that awful day. And as this video so clearly demonstrates: why do soldiers fight? They fight for each other.

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Great Weekend Blog Reading Links!

Teach at Pirate’s Cove is blogging about “Climate Scientists” Told To Cover Up Reality Of No Warming Over Past 15+ Years.”

The Other McCain has many good blog posts up including this one by Stacy on “The Monster Bill Schmalfeldt.” Go read it!!

ST at Sister Toldjah has up a post on “Unhinged #NCpol Dems: What liberal NC professors think of opposing viewpoints.”

Professor Jacobson at Legal Insurrection has up a great post today on “Why that video of Israeli soldiers dancing at Palestinian club wasn’t so funny.”

Jeff at Gay Patriot has up an interesting blog post called “Obama in desperate denial.”

Have you been to Acting School with Nick Searcy? You need to go now! Don’t forget to “Subscribe” because it’s awesome. 🙂

Glenn Reynolds or Instapundit has many great posts at his blog hub from all over the blogosphere so go check them out! And you can watch Glenn’s latest video for PJTV here.

Emily at NakedDC has a blog post up on “Now you can’t buy Jesse Jackson, Jr’s stuff because it might be fake.” 🙂

Dana at The First Street Journal has up a great post “An honest Democrat.” Wait…what??

Deebow over at Blackfive has up a great post called “You Sicken Me….” It’s awesome and I couldn’t agree more.

Max at MaxRedline has up a post up called “Democrat Mindset.” Yeah, Max. They do seem to lack “basic skills”.

Jammie at Jammie Wearing Fools has up a post on “Company Behind Snowden Vetting Did Washington Shooter Check.” Where’s my shocked face?

This Ain’t Hell has a number of great posts up including this one by Jonn on “Eric Harroun pleads out, released.”

As always, Michelle Obama’s Mirror has up a fun blog post called “In Search of Our Perfect Doppelganger.” 🙂

Donald Douglas at American Power has up this blog post on “The Consistently Divisive Rhetoric of President Obama.”

Soopermexican has up this post with updates “CA Democratic Official Allan Brauer’s Insanely Offensive Tweets Against Conservatives.”

Evil Blogger Lady has up a terrific post called “Democrats are shameless liars and hypocrites…” Yes, EBL, they are.

Ed Morrissey has this post up at Hot Air “CYA? Venezula seizes toilet paper factory.”

and finally, Ace at AoSHQ has a great post “A Philsophical Inquiry Into the Nature of Stupidity.” It’s a must read and don’t forget the comments!

Have a terrific weekend!