As the dust settled following a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan in August 2012, four Americans lay mortally wounded and several others were seriously injured. But the ambush could have been far worse were it not for the quick-thinking of a former college track star who joined the Army four years earlier: Capt. Florent Groberg.
Groberg, 32, received the Medal of Honor on Thursday in a White House ceremony, and was celebrated for his guts, quick-thinking and willingness to put himself in harm’s way to protect his fellow soldiers. Moments before the first of two suicide bombers detonated near his patrol in Konar province on Aug. 8, 2012, Groberg confronted one of them, shoving him away from the patrolling soldiers and knocking him to the ground seconds before the explosion.
[After confronting a suicide bomber, this soldier must swap running for the Medal of Honor]
Advertisement
“Today, we honor Flo because his actions prevented an even greater catastrophe,” President Obama said. “You see, by pushing the bomber away from the formation, the explosion occurred farther from our forces, and on the ground instead of in the open air. And while Flo didn’t know it at the time, that explosion also caused a second unseen bomb to detonate before it was in place. Had both bombs gone off as planned, who knows how many would have been killed?”
Groberg, who made a name for himself as a runner at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Md., and later at the University of Maryland-College Park, suffered life-threatening wounds to his left leg that led to 33 surgeries, he told The Washington Post in an interview last week. Surgeons saved his leg, but he is unable to run now because half of his calf muscle was blown off, he said.
The ceremony included a number of somber moments. Family members of three service members killed that day – Army Command Sgt. Maj. Kevin J. Griffin, 46; Army Maj. Thomas E. Kennedy, 35; Air Force Maj. Walter D. Gray, 38 — stood and were recognized.
So were the survivors of the attack, including Sgt. Andrew Mahoney, who, like Groberg, needed numerous surgeries to recover. Mahoney previously received the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest award for valor in combat, for his actions in confronting the suicide bomber with Groberg.
Advertisement
Also present were several of the other nine living service members who received the Medal of Honor for actions in Afghanistan. Standing in dress uniform just off the dais, they applauded loudly as Groberg joined their fraternity.
The family of a foreign service officer also killed in the attack, Ragaei Abdelfattah, 43, could not attend, Obama said.
[Ex-Terps star conquered the track, then a suicide bomber]
The ceremony wasn’t all serious, however. Obama opened his remarks by recalling some of Groberg’s first memories at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center after being injured. Groberg thought he was hallucinating because speaking to him was Jonathan Davis, the lead singer from the rock band Korn.
“Flo thought, ‘What’s going on? Am I hallucinating?’ But he wasn’t. It was all real,” Obama said. “And so today, Flo, I want to assure you, you are not hallucinating. You are actually in the White House. Those cameras are on. I am not the lead singer from Korn. We are here to award you our nation’s highest military honor… the Medal of Honor.”
Obama said that the training and teamwork that made Groberg a great runner also made him a good soldier. It also led to him being selected to serve as the personal security detail detachment commander for his colonel, now-Brig. Gen. James Mingus, Obama said.
Advertisement
On the day of the attack, the president said, men on two motorcycles sped toward the Army patrol as it reached a choke point at a bridge. They ran away when confronted, Obama said, but it turns out they were a diversion: moments later, a man in dark clothing appeared to the left of the unit, walking backward about 10 feet away before he spun around and Groberg sprinted toward him.
“And at that moment, Flo did something extraordinary — he grabbed the bomber by his vest and kept pushing him away,” Obama said. “And all those years of training on the track, in the classroom, out in the field — all of it came together. In those few seconds, he had the instincts and the courage to do what was needed.”
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLumw9JomqGdk6C9sLXNrWawqF9nfXKBjmpoaGliZK6zudhmmpqoXZu5sL7Ep6tmn6Kkr6a%2B02apnpuVnsOmv4ytn55lnZqxoriMqJ1moJ%2BjvLN7