ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) – He tackled a suicide bomber while serving in Afghanistan, saving fellow soldiers’ lives while suffering a gruesome leg injury. During three years of recovery and more than 30 surgeries at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Army Capt. Florent Groberg was left with a lot of time to think.
His thoughts often turned to the four men who did not survive the attack: Command Sgt. Maj. Kevin J. Griffin, Maj. Thomas E. Kennedy, Air Force Maj. Walter D. Gray and Ragaei Abdelfattah, a U.S. Agency for International Development foreign service officer.
His thoughts sometimes turned dark.
“You go through your little demons,” Groberg said in an interview at the Pentagon, where he now works as a civilian. “‘Why am I here when four guys are not? Why are four incredible, family men not here and I am? Did I do everything I was supposed to do? Did my guys do everything they were supposed to do? What do I do now?'”
Florent Groberg’s tale of heroism is not a neat and tidy one. On Thursday, President Barack Obama will present him with the Medal of Honor, which will make Groberg the 10th living recipient of the nation’s highest military award for actions in Afghanistan. But it won’t change the fact that the day he became a hero was the worst day of his life.