What we as a country (and via our leading of ISAF forces) have done, has made the people of Afghanistan into a huge dependent welfare state. I can say this is not surprising at all. These are a people who are used to having nothing. They live in dirt, their houses are made of dirt, and they have to claw, scratch or steal for just about anything. There are entire villages that walk the desert and pick up rocks in order to hand-carry them to a quarry and sell them for pennies in order for the rocks to be made into gravel. Poverty does not even begin to describe many of the Afghan people.

Little girls playing with mud like it is Play-doh because they have no toys or any other way to play.

Much of what LTC Davis states in the article is what many of us who have blogged from there have tried to say multiple times. When I read things like this..

 I saw little to no evidence the local governments were able to provide for the basic needs of the people. Some of the Afghan civilians I talked with said the people didn’t want to be connected to a predatory or incapable local government.

it reminds me of my time there in 2006-2007, so that was nothing new. However what was sad is that in 2012 it is still that way. I knew when I left Afghanistan that it would take a long time for things to turn around. I stated in 2007 that our forces would need to be there for at least another 10-15 years before the Afghans could handle it on their own. That was purely my assessment based on what I saw at the time. Since that time a lot has changed with a huge increase of US Forces on the ground compared to when I was there, and much more development in country. I was hoping that maybe the 10-15 year timeframe may have shrunk a bit, but it appears that is not the case.

On a patrol to the northernmost U.S. position in eastern Afghanistan, we arrived at an Afghan National Police (ANP) station that had reported being attacked by the Taliban 2½ hours earlier.

Through the interpreter, I asked the police captain where the attack had originated, and he pointed to the side of a nearby mountain.

“What are your normal procedures in situations like these?” I asked. “Do you form up a squad and go after them? Do you periodically send out harassing patrols? What do you do?”

As the interpreter conveyed my questions, the captain’s head wheeled around, looking first at the interpreter and turning to me with an incredulous expression. Then he laughed.

“No! We don’t go after them,” he said. “That would be dangerous!”

According to the cavalry troopers, the Afghan policemen rarely leave the cover of the checkpoints. In that part of the province, the Taliban literally run free.

The article truly provides a cold splash of water in the face of Americans as to what is really happening. Something that needs to happen and by having a field-grade officer say it, speaks volumes more. In this day and age as military commands are doing all they can to shut down bloggers and those trying to give an honest view, a perspective like this is needed. I am afraid, however, that this LTC may have ended his military career. I am sure his higher command is not going to be happy with this and will make sure he never sees Colonel.

The Afghan people are not ready. They won’t be ready in mid-2013, 2014 and probably not for a couple of years after that. Does that mean we need to stay there? If we do, it needs to be under a completely different set of rules. COIN has essentially failed in Afghanistan. I am sorry to say that, but it is true.

“You can’t buy and Afghan, but you can rent one” is a common saying there. Over the last several years we have been renting their allegiance and kindness. As long as we are there, saturating the countryside with security, passing out millions in aid money, and giving them everything they need or want that their own government can’t provide then we are renting them.

It is beyond the Afghans NEEDING to take over and take control, they HAVE to. The Afghan Government and people owe it not only to their own countrymen, but also to the American and other coalition country people. The United States, along with many other nations have given the Afghans our sons, daughters and money to help the Afghans get a jumpstart on the development of their own country. Many times when asked about Afghans, I have told people to think of the worse welfare abuse they have ever heard of and multiply it by a thousand. Many Afghans act like they are on a permanent welfare systems (just like many Americans act), and they are not motivated to get off the welfare because since we have been there, they have acquired and achieved more than any other time in their lives. They have no loss of pride or any shame in taking the hand-outs.

But that is ending, and it will be here before they know it. However they are not getting that message. They are not reading blogs like this or stories like LTC Davis’s. They don’t have the access and quite frankly I don’t think they would understand it. Their cold splash of reality will happen by 2014 I guess, when they wake up and the Coalition is no longer there.

By then, it will be way too late to be a patriotic Afghan.

Please take a moment and go read armedforcesjournal.com/2012/02/8904030

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Let me be clear, Mike Yon was in the Army. He was in Special Forces for a short-time period. Actually his time in the Army was short. He also killed a man in bar-fight right after earning his Green Beret. Good for him for his short service, at least it was service. Shame on him for bringing embarrassment to the Army for killing a civilian in a bar-fight. He never served in combat, but that is ok. There are many that have never served in combat.

So lets look at these credentials. He knows good military training, from back in the day. He also knows how to take another person’s life, granted not for good or justifiable reasons.

He has also been dis-embedded from multiple units in Afghanistan and is pretty much not being allowed back into country now to embed with anyone. It could be because he crosses over to what could be considered as unethical stories. He has been accused of violating operational security. He has also lashed out at any military command that does not allow him to embed (he did this with the Navy after the Japan disaster and the Army multiple times).

But like I said at least he has served. He belongs to a long list of great people that have served this country. However serving does not make you above the law, or perfect, or right in every situation. Just ask Lynddie England, Timothy McViegh, or Bradley Manning. They all have served in the Army. Does that make them great people that deserve respect regardless of what they have done? I think not.

Anyway, for some reason Mike Yon who has never served in combat, but has embedded with many military units in combat is now a subject matter expert on the use of MEDEVACS and how they are marked and what their mission is in combat. I have never played professional football but I have been to many games and have hours playing EA’s Madden football game on my computer and Xbox. That does not make me subject matter expert on how to play or what it is like or what plays to call. Just an analogy there on how stupid it is for anyone to listen to Mike Yon and his full-of-shit opinion about strategy and doctrine. He is nothing more than an arm-chair general who thinks he is in the “know” and is so full of himself that if he could get through life with making love to himself, I think he would. 

Mike has capitalized on an incident that happened while he was embedded in Afghanistan before he was kicked out. He is on a kick to try and get the Army to remove the red crosses from the MEDEVAC helicopter and to arm them like CASEVAC helicopters are some times. You may be asking, what is the difference? Let me point you to Aerovac World, which is a social networking site for professionals in the Aerovac Evacuation industry. You can find more at www.aerovacworld.com/showthread.php?221-Difference-between-CASEVAC-MEDEVAC-and-AEROVAC

CASEVAC
CASEVAC uses non standardized and non dedicated vehicles that do not provide en route care. The service exists to transport casualties that are in dire need for evacuation from the battlefield and do not have time to wait on a MEDEVAC, or where a MEDEVAC is unable to get to the casualty. Essentially it is any helicopter or vehicle that can get into an area and evacuate an injured member with or without a medical crew and/or equipment.

According to AFTTP3-42.5
Casualty evacuation (CASEVAC), a term used by all Services, refers to the movement of unregulated casualties aboard vehicles or aircraft.

MEDEVAC or DUSTOFF
The Army has a long history of medevac via helicopter starting with the 57th Medical Detachment back in 1962. The history of the DUSTOFF mission can be found on their website www.dustoff.org/history/history.htm

DUSTOFF is a standardized and dedicated vehicle providing en route care. They are traditionally on UH-1 Huey’s and UH-60’s Blackhawks. They can be easily identified with the Red Cross symbol on the nose and sides of the helicopter. One other identifiable mark with medevac’s is they do not have gunners aboard like the Air Force medics had. DUSTOFF medics are extremely skilled at what they do and are highly regarded as some of the best medics around. For more information about DUSTOFF, please visit www.dustoff.org.

According to AFTTP3-42.5
Medical evacuation
(MEDEVAC), on the other hand, traditionally refers to US Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard patient movement using predesignated tactical or logistic aircraft temporarily equipped and staffed for en route care. MEDEVAC has generally implied the use of rotarywing aircraft with medical attendants (MA).

Air Force Medevac
The Air Force doesn’t traditionally fill a medevac role but in 2006 the Army asked the Air Force to help with its medevac mission, it was considered an in-lieu-of deployment. The first medics that took on this responsibility were then TSgt Mark D. and TSgt Shawn B.. In order to fill the role, they needed to qualify on the helicopter and attend survival school.

Because the Air Force normally doesn’t carry out the medevac mission, it doesn’t have a helicopter designed for that purpose. This meant the flight medics had to make do with what they had, the HH-60 Pave Hawk, a helicopter the Air Force uses for combat search and rescue missions. It, too, is a distant relative of the Army’s Black Hawk.

I hope that explains it a little better and offers more clarity. Medevacs are not armed with weapons as they are armed with life-saving equipment. A CASEVAC is any type of transport available. It could be another helicopter, a HUMVEE, or hell even a civilian vehicle if that is all that is available. It is a means to transport a wounded warrior. In war zones just about every vehicle has a weapon on it. Some don’t, especially those that have a unique or specified purpose. For example, the Buffalo MRAP, The Husky or MEDEVAC birds. They are specialized, they have a unique application and it is more important that they carry what they need to do their job versus trying to fill a mission they are not destined for.

So when SPC Chazray Clark’s widow, Christine asks the question I would hope that someone could get to her and explain the answer. Someone besides Yon who is doing nothing but taking advantage of her and her grief.

“I just don’t understand why — can’t they take the red crosses off,” she said, “and put machine guns on them? Why do they have to wait for somebody to escort them?”

If a MEDEVAC is carrying weapons and ammunition, then how are they supposed to carry all the life-saving medical equipment they are required to carry? Remember they are designated to provide en-route care and not just evacuate the wounded from the battlefield.

Former Afghanistan Commander and RESPECTED military leader LTG John Campbell makes it pretty clear.

 …Lt. Gen. John Campbell says it would not save more lives.

“I don’t think arming a medevac bird or taking a cross off a medevac bird will change whether or not we can get in and save our soldiers,” he said.

Machine guns would add weight and reduce the number of patients a medevac could carry and would not bring nearly as much firepower as an Apache escort. Today in Afghanistan, a wounded soldier stands a 92 percent chance of surviving — the highest rate of any war. Campbell, a former commander in Afghanistan and now chief of army operations, says that is the best argument for unarmed medevacs.

Because they don’t have weapons on board, the Army requires that armed helicopters go with the unarmed MEDEVACS anywhere they go. Regardless of what the non-combat veteran Mike Yon says those red crosses don’t invite more gunfire onto the helicopter due in large part because there is always an armed Apache, Blackhawk or even a Chinook helicopter with them.

What amazes me is that a guy who flip-flops on whether or not he is a journalist or blogger or whatever the flavor of the day is, a guy who killed a innocent person in a bar-fight, a guy who has been thrown out of embed after embed with the military can somehow have the ear of Fox News and of many elected Congressman and Senators. Why do they even give him the time of day much less help spread the lies and fallacies that he has made up in his little fat head.

I have been on the business end of more MEDEVACS then I care to remember. I have called in many and then had to wait and provide care and comfort to the wounded, keep security up  and also re-assure his buddies that the bird was coming. In fact one one day I had two MEDEVACS just about 90 minutes apart. Lucky for Mr. Yon he has never had to experience that, he has only had to watch from the sidelines through his lens and then sharpshoot and ridicule the entire process.

Please do me a favor, if you agree with what I say and have the common sense to see the difference between the different means of getting wounded off the battlefield, leave a comment here or better yet send your Representative or Senator a comment about it.

You can also read more and see a CBS video about this at www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57362374/did-military-rules-cost-a-soldier-his-life/

DISCLAIMER- In case it was not clear, I can’t stand Mike Yon, the ground he walks on or the oxygen he steals from the rest of us. I don’t give a crap what he thinks about me, and never will. To put it into perspective, if his body was on fire and his head was ripped off…I would piss down his neck-hole but not on his body because it would put the fire out.

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From 2001-2012 we have lost thousands of America’s sons and daughters there, 1891 to be exact. They fell giving their lives for the security of our country and for the good of the Afghan people and the world. The cause of this war was just and appropriate. Regardless of what people feel about why we went to war with Iraq, the war in Afghanistan was warranted.

Photo Courtesy of Bigstockphoto.com

There has been a lot of discussion in the news, around the watercooler and in the homes of our military about what strategy we should take in Afghanistan. Should we draw a line in the sand at 2014 and pull out or should we plan to stay there until the country is ready to stand up for itself? In reality nobody has the perfect answer because none of us have the ability to see into the future.

However with SecDef Panetta’s slip of the tongue the other day stating that we are going to end the “combat’ role a year early in 2013, it really smells like our war strategy is now completely political. This screw up by the SecDef shocked many around the world, from the Afghans to Panetta’s own staff.

With an election year coming it is as clear as crystal that this new plan (that had yet to be announced to anyone) is geared towards propping up the President. He wants to be the guy who not only ended the Iraq War (except for the fact that President Bush signed the original agreement to have us out by the end of 2011), but also the Afghan war. As I said before when our last “combat troops” left Iraq, you can spin those lies all you want, but as long as they are still there kitted up, armed to the teeth and dying, they are in combat.  So  the administration is now planning a strategy to say that the last “combat” troops will be out of Afghanistan in 2013. Who knows how many and for how long American troops will stay there, but the political re-election machine wants the American people to believe the lies that by saying they are “non-combat” that we aren’t there getting wounded or dying anymore.

Now I personally agree that we need to hold Afghanistan accountable (like yesterday) for their own security. However I would like to think that our troops (many of which are friends of mine) whom are there, are there for the noble cause as for which this whole thing started, and not to just be fodder for political sound bites.

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The Afghan soldier who gunned down nine Americans in a shooting rampage at a military compound in Kabul last April targeted and killed his U.S. mentors after they took away his wings and cut his salary nearly in half because he was unable to learn English, a longtime colleague of the killer has told FoxNews.com.
A second Afghan airman, who was wounded in the April 27 attack, says the gunman, Col. Ahmed Gul, also intended to kill Afghans who were working with the Americans at the base at Kabul Airport. And he said he fears there will be more incidents like it as the war winds down.

Read more: www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/26/exclusive-flunked-english-class-pay-cut-behind-afghans-shooting-rampage-at-us/#ixzz1kbHdWHGG

I can’t say this is much different from Americans. We hear all the time about fired disgruntled workers who go back into the workplace and gun down their managers, co-workers, etc.

What is surprising in this whole thing is that the Air Force just released their Special Investigation report into this incident and there was no mention of the cut in pay or flying status. Why would that be? It could be that none of it is true, or that it is but the Air Force for some reason is hiding that fact or did not want to make that known for some politically correct reason.

I would say that if this were true, it would be a prime motive of why COL Gul decided to murder. I would hope that the Air Force is not trying to hide this in order to hide the fact that as we mentor and train Afghans to do their jobs and secure their own country that we would and should be holding them accountable and thereby punishing them when needed.

I don’t mean to sound all conspiracy theorist here but lets just say I have seen more than my fair share of covering up of Afghan inadequacies and shortfalls by US military and civilian leadership.

Photo Courtesy of www.bigstockphoto.com

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Taliban militants, who have shunned violence, are being provided monthly cash incentive of £100, besides being given amnesty for all crimes such as murdering children, beheadings and hanging women.

“Members of the Taliban who give up their fight are being paid £100 a month and will be allowed to keep their guns in a new initiative to end the insurgency,” the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported.

Paying the Taliban not to fight is like giving a rapist free hookers so he doesn’t rape innocent women. Sure it will accomplish what you want in the short term, but over time it will become too expensive and you make them dependent on you.

Once we cut off the payments then they will go back to doing what they have to in order to survive, which means attacking us or the Government of Afghanistan. You cannot buy your way out of a problem like this.

The move, which has the full support of NATO, is part of the “reintegration” programme and is intended to keep militants from attacking troops from the International Stabilisation and Assistance Force (ISAF).

“Those who have attacked and killed British forces are also effectively given an amnesty, which means they will never be put on trial,” the paper said.

Maj Gen David Hook, the director of the Joint Force Integration Cell in Kabul, told the paper the programme would be difficult for many British families to accept but insisted that reintegration was vital if peace was to be achieved.

The amnesty extends to all Taliban militants, including those who have taken part in atrocities, such as murdering children, beheadings and hanging women, it said.

The agreement is part of a policy signed by the British Government in which insurgents are being allowed to “walk off the battlefield” and enter a “reintegration” scheme, it said.

The paper said Taliban joining the programme are not interrogated but instead are asked to complete a questionnaire explaining their reasons for joining the insurgency.

More than 2,700 insurgents have been reintegrated into mainstream Afghan society since October 2010, with 800 now described as “showing interest in leaving the Taliban”.

Of those, about 90 are from Helmand, where nearly 400 British troops have been killed and more than 5,000 injured.

This will never work for the long haul. In fact I am sure many Taliban would simply collect the money each month and still attack troops. What is their motivation not to?

There is an old saying in Afghanistan that says “you can’t buy and Afghan, but you can rent one”. We can’t buy their loyalty or allegiance, it is impossible with the resources at hand. This is just the most stupid-ass thing I have ever heard of. It is bound to waste thousands or millions of dollars and end up achieving nothing except maybe a temporary reprieve.

Someone needs to find the idiots in ISAF and NATO who came up with this hair-brained idea and bounce them out of the building before they do any more damage.

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• 

To read the story and see the video of the drone in Iran’s hands go check out www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16098562

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It seems from some recent stories coming out of overseas news outlets that the Taliban in Pakistan are starting to feel the pressure of US drone and Pakistan Army attacks.

Peshawar, Pakistan – After a deadly campaign of attacks, the Pakistani Taliban are weakened and exploring peace talks with authorities perceived as increasingly at odds with the United States, observers say.
Taliban commanders now say they have started initial talks with Islamabad, mediated by former army officials, in a move that could end years of “holy war” that saw 500 attacks killing more than 4 700 people, according to an AFP tally.
The army and the spokesman for the main umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban faction, allied to al-Qaeda, strongly denied the claims and low-level violence continues on a near daily basis, as do clashes between troops and militants.
Any negotiations underway need to be taken with a large pinch of salt. Rebel factions are eclectic and nebulous and it remains unclear whether they are united enough to clinch a deal or how long any such deal would last.
Nevertheless, the rhythm of attacks has changed dramatically in Pakistan, with the death toll steadily diminishing in a pattern that continued after US Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in the garrison city of Abbottabad on May 2.
Significantly, there has been no major Islamist militant attack in Pakistan since a suicide bomber killed 46 people at a funeral in the northwestern district of Lower Dir on September 15.
According to an AFP tally, around 800 people have been killed in bomb attacks so far this year, significantly fewer than the 1 360
killed in 2010.
About 556 people died in attacks in the six months before bin Laden was killed and 412 in the six months afterwards.
“TTP was at its peak in 2007-2008. But it has since been weakened and is divided,” said Saifullah Khan Mehsud, an analyst at the FATA Research Centre, a think tank dedicated to the Afghan border areas where Taliban are based.
In 2009, the Taliban marched to within 100 kilometres of the capital Islamabad, sending Western allies into a tailspin of panic, worried that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons could fall into rebel hands.
The army went on the offensive, local anti-Taliban militias proliferated and the rebels were pushed back into the mountains on the Afghan border. TTP founder Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in August 2009.
Islamist militants’ main base, the tribal district of North Waziristan, has been targeted for three years by US drone strikes which “kill TTP militants for the most part”, according to one frequent visitor to the district.
The army has also stepped up searches and checkpoints on the roads linking the semi-autonomous tribal zone to the rest of the country. More and more rebels are also reported to have fled into Afghanistan.
“It is much more difficult for militants to move around. Overall, their network has been disrupted,” said the frequent visitor to North Waziristan.
A number of observers also say the TTP is short of money. Two of its main sources of income – kidnappings for ransom and donations from local traders – have dried up.
Potential kidnapping victims are taking more precautions and people are less inclined to cough up cash when civilians are so often killed in their attacks. …

I am not sure how this effects HIG and other Taliban type insurgent groups in Afghanistan but with stories like this from the AP on November 9th…

KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan official says between 60 to 70 insurgents have been killed after they attacked bases used by NATO and Afghan forces in the eastern Paktika province.Mokhlis Afghan, the spokesman for the provincial governor, says insurgents moved from the Afghan-Pakistan border on Tuesday night and attacked the bases in Barmal district.He says Afghan and NATO forces quickly launched a counter attack and called in coalition aircraft. He says the fighting left up to 70 insurgents dead.NATO says the militants attacked the bases with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, but no NATO servicemembers were killed or wounded in the attack.

..then I would say they is no shortage of butt-whipping happening against the Taliban insurgent in Afghanistan too. Another reality is that many of the fighters we face in the East and South are from Pakistan so maybe if their insurgent-producing madrassas and groups are not as effective anymore, we could see a change in Afghanistan.

Either way a dead Taliban is a good Taliban, regardless of what country they are in.

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     The Department of Defense announced today that an additional campaign phase has been approved for the Afghanistan Campaign Medal (ACM).   Accordingly, an additional campaign star corresponding to the campaign phase is now authorized for wear on the ACM.

     ACM campaign stars recognize a service member’s participation in DoD-designated military campaigns in the Afghanistan Campaign Medal’s area of eligibility.

     Service members who have qualified for the ACM may display a bronze campaign star on their medal for each designated campaign phase in which they participated. The stars are worn on the suspension and campaign ribbon of the campaign medal.

     The additional ACM campaign phase and associated dates are:

• Transition I  July 1, 2011 through a date to be determined.

     The four previously approved ACM campaign phases are:

• Liberation of Afghanistan – Sept. 11, 2001 to Nov. 30, 2001
• Consolidation I – Dec. 1, 2001 to Sept. 30, 2006
• Consolidation II – Oct. 1, 2006 to Nov. 30, 2009
• Consolidation III – Dec. 1, 2009 through June 30, 2011.

      Service members should contact their respective military departments for specific implementation guidance.

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Two suicide bombers, one of them a woman, blew themselves up, claiming at least four lives while an Afghan soldier shot dead four people, including three NATO soldiers, in Afghanistan Saturday, officials said.

A woman suicide bomber blew herself up next to the department of National Directorate for Security in Kunar province capital Assadabad, killing one person and injuring five others, including three policemen, an official told Xinhua.

The second suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car around 11.30 a.m. near a NATO convoy in Darul Aman road in the western part of Kabul Saturday morning, police spokesman Hashmat Stanikezy told Xinhua.

Meanwhile, an Afghan soldier opened fire and killed four people, including three NATO soldiers, and their local interpreter in Uruzgan province, said General Abdul Hamid Wardak, Afghan army commander in the southern region.

Reports are now coming out saying the VBIED (car-bomb) in Kabul killed 13 American service-members. When I first heard that I wondered “why 13?”, as it seemed like a weird number. You really can’t cram 13 in a HUMVEE or MRAP and since it was a convoy I doubt they could blow up three MRAPs from one VBIED. However I am now hearing it was an attack on a bus.

It was one of the Armored buses called a RHINO.

In Kabul, the suicide bomber targeted an armored bus that was part of a convoy of mine-resistant armored military vehicles traveling on a road in the southwest end of the city. NATO said there were “several” causalities among its forces and Afghan civilians, but did not provide details.

The Afghan Ministry of Interior said three Afghan civilians and one policeman died in the Kabul attack. Eight other Afghans — two members of the Afghan security forces and six civilians, including two children — were wounded, said Kabir Amiri, head of Kabul hospitals.

The attack occurred near the ladmark Darulaman Palace, the bombed-out seat of former Afghan kings.

I always knew those would be a prime target for the Taliban. Even though they are armored, enough explosives will still kill some of those inside. Bigger Armor just means bigger bomb. I am glad that at least they wised up in Afghanistan to go with armored buses. I will never forget my wide from Bagram to Kabul in 2006 after we first got in country. After spending months preparing for entering the war-zone, they packed us all (probably 40-50 soldiers) on a Civilian bus with no armor for the 1 hour plus ride. None of us could believe it and I remember several on my team, to include me thinking we were gonna die on that bus and never make it any farther.

The level of complacency and optimism back then was sickening, scary and unnecessarily put soldiers at risk. I don’t know how this convoy was operating, but I do know that starting in 2007 the leadership in Afghanistan started ordering soldiers to “drive friendly” and to allow civilian cars between vehicles in a convoy if they wanted to (we used to not allow them and would shoot vehicles if they tried to get into a convoy). Many on my team still refused to allow that to happen. We were a little more concerned about staying alive than upsetting an Afghan who usually never had a driver’s license anyway.

It would not surprise me to find out that a civilian vehicle was allows near the bus because of this attitude in country.

My prayers are going out for many warfighters this morning, their families, friends and comrades. May they rest in peace….

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Army Capt. Will Swenson has been recommended by the top U.S. general in Afghanistan for the Medal of Honor after widespread speculation about why his heroism had gone unrecognized, according to a published report.

Swenson braved enemy fire on Sept. 8, 2009, with Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer, who will receive the nation’s top valor award Thursday at the White House. Meyer, now a sergeant in the Individual Ready Reserve, told Marine Corps Times recently that it was “ridiculous” Swenson already hadn’t received some form of valor award.

“I’ll put it this way,” the outspoken Meyer said in an interview. “If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be alive today.”

Marine Gen. John Allen, the top commander in Afghanistan, took a personal interest in the fierce firefight in Ganjgal, Afghanistan, that led to Meyer’s award, according to a report published on The Wall Street Journal’s website Wednesday night. The record of the battle was reopened last month, and “given the four-star general’s personal interest, sworn statements attesting to Capt. Swenson’s valor were quickly found.”

“Gen. Allen has since forwarded a Medal of Honor recommendation, saying it was the right thing to do despite a lapse of two years,” the report said.

As the story says (www.navytimes.com/news/2011/09/military-medal-of-honor-william-swenson-report-ganjgal-hero-recommended-091411w/) this has taken too long to make happen and I along with many others are highly suspicious why it took so long for this recommendation to go forward.

This delayed recommendation has several scandalous facets to it. First and foremost is that even thought Dakota Meyer was nominated for and received the Medal of Honor, CPT Swenson was not even put in for an Army Commendation Medal, much less anything near MoH or the MoH itself. As documented in multiple sworn statements, CPT Swenson was side by side, performing the same heroic actions as Dakota Meyer. 

The other part of this story that makes one raise an eyebrow in skepticism is that Will Swenson openly criticized the command above him and other officers for denying him and the others with him the vital and life-saving support they needed.

“When I’m being second-guessed by higher or somebody that’s sitting in an air-conditioned TOC, why [the] hell am I even out there in the first place?” Swenson told investigators. “Let’s sit back and play Nintendo. I am the ground commander I want that f—er, and I am willing to accept the consequences of that f—er.”

Swenson added that he had been second-guessed on previous occasions, and was frustrated by a complicated process to clear fires, even under duress.

“I always get these crazy messages saying that, ‘Hey, brigade is saying that you can’t see the target,’” Swenson told investigators. “Brigade, you’re in Jalalabad. F— you, you know? I am staring at the target. … I just get the craziest things on the radio sometimes. Just people second guessing. If I am willing to put my initials on it, I understand the importance of making sure the rounds hit where they are supposed to hit. I understand the consequences of civilian casualties.”

I can totally understand why Swenson was so upset and I feel he was more than justified in saying what he said. There have been other detailed accounts of medical and weapon support denied to those on the tip of the spear. You can go read several books by James F. Christ like; The Boneyard, Landigal or Kamdesh and you too will be so pissed that you will start calling people F__ and other colorful words.

I can’t count the number of times that I personally was denied support in combat operations. It ranged from denied close air support to a US Company Commander who refused to allow his mortar section to fire illumination rounds over the heads of enemy soldiers attacking our FOB because he thought “the falling canisters could fall on someone’s head”. That was the only time I ever cussed out a Captain over a radio for all to hear. It was not professional of me, but I was pissed. I am a qualified Mortarmen and had spent most of my career doing that job. I know how to call for a fire mission and adjust rounds. Who is he to question what I see when I have the muzzle flashes coming at me.

Anyway, my points is that I get it. I get why CPT Swanson was so upset. He had every right to be, and apparently others felt the same way because a couple of officers were later reprimanded for denying the support.

At least two officers — with Task Force Chosin, a unit comprising soldiers from 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, out of Fort Drum, N.Y. — were later cited following the investigation for “negligent” leadership leading “directly to the loss of life” on the battlefield.

So it appears that by openly criticizing fellow officers, CPT Will Swenson’s MoH or whatever award he was recommended for kept getting lost or maybe was never submitted at all. If he ends up receiving the Medal of Honor himself, then if I was him I would make sure the White House invites all of those officers who denied his support (reprimanded or not) to the award ceremony so they would have to look him in the face.

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