Army officer’s MOH nomination “lost” in aftermath of crucial battle
Parachute cutie sent us a link last night to a Stars & Stripes/ McClatchy article about the nomination process for a Medal of Honor for former Army Capt. William Swenson it seems that the paperwork got “lost” in this here digital age we’re livin’ in. But the reasons it was “lost” might be more political than clerical;
It couldn’t be determined whether there was an effort to kill Swenson’s Medal of Honor nomination, but there are several possible motives for doing so.
Interviewed by military investigators five days after the battle, Swenson implicitly criticized top U.S. commanders in Afghanistan by blasting their rules of engagement. Angered that his repeated calls for artillery and air support were denied during the ambush, he charged that in trying to prevent civilian casualties for political reasons, the rules were costing U.S. soldiers’ lives.
“We are not looking at the ground fighter and why he is using these air assets,” Swenson said, according to a transcript obtained by McClatchy. “We just reduced an asset that’s politically unpopular. I’m sure there are a lot of people out there saying, ‘I would really like that asset.’ There are probably a lot of people who got killed as a result of not having that asset.
“I’m not a politician. I’m just the guy on the ground asking for that ammunition to be dropped because it’s going to save lives,” he continued.
His criticism of the folks who held back the fire power that Swenson so desperately needed to extricate his command from the firefight doesn’t change the facts that he saved his unit or the fact that he drove back into withering fire to rescue fallen troops repeatedly.
If this is Big Army’s way of silencing critics about their inability to balance their rules of engagement against fighting an effective war, message received. Now do the right thing. I’m pretty sure that CPT Swenson could care less, but we, the public, do care.
Category: Big Army
High awards are difficult enough to come by in the GWOT compared to other wars, and when one commits the cardinal sin of calling out one’s CofC, one keystroke and “poof”.
Doesn’t make what they did right, however. And if Big Army (and the civilians running DoD) thinks this will make things better, they’re going to be in for a rude surprise.
What a shit storm….
NHSparky: based on what I saw while I was in Afghanistan, I can believe someone “pulled the plug” here. I saw some remarkably petty political bullshit there.
rb325th: agreed. But Big Army is gonna get that either way now. If it’s approved (the article says Swenson’s MOH packet was recreated and is at the SECDEF level awaiting review), they’ll end up causing a major pissing contest between the Army and USMC over the conflicting accounts of the two MOH recipients from the action (Dakota Meyer received his for the same action, and the two accounts differ significantly). If it’s not, they catch hell – deservedly so – for screwing a deserving hero for political purposes.
Either way, Big Army has no one to blame but itself for the situation it’s in. You think they’d have learned from the Tillman fiasco (and many others) that attempting a cover-up is a really bad idea. The truth eventually comes out.
No award at all?!? Army Times had a piece a few weeks ago in which they talked about individuals who were probably deserving of the MOH and Swenson was the only one with no award at all for his action (never mind Dakota Meyer getting the blue max and his driver getting a Navy Cross for the same event).
I don’t expect big Army’s bureaucracy to do anything about it absent significant political pressure (it is a disgrace that Alwyn Cashe’s Silver Star has not yet been upgraded). An award is only worth what the approval authority thinks it is worth and you can never tell what will, or will not, fly.
I believe a Marine General who investigated the “fiasco” recommended Swenson for the MOH.
When COL Bill Dabney was awarded the Navy Cross for actions at Hill 881 during Khe Sanh 37 years after the action, it was more believable that the award was lost. This case (CPT Swenson) is ridiculous.
That is the political atmosphere the military is caught up in. Higher comands shaking in their slippers, afraid to commit assets, because they MIGHT fall on “inocent civilians”. So far, what I’ve read, CPT Swenson deserves the MOH and its a damned shame politics may be involved. The soldiers he saved don’t give a flying rats ass about political bullshit, they care about and are alive because a good officer stood his ground and by his troops!
68W58: according to the article, the Army has (very belatedly) done it’s part. The article states that the recommendation is at the SECDEF for review. As I understand it, for a MOH recommendation that’s the last step before it goes to the POTUS for decision.
TWO WORDS: Congressional Inquiry
Perhaps a bit premature, MCPO. The 3-year “window” doesn’t run out until next month, and the award packet appears to be at the SECDEF’s office. Give the process time to work, and the Army an opportunity to investigate the loss and/or other improprieties themselves first.
If, however, this one never makes it to the POTUS – or if the Army tries to whitewash the incident vice investigating it properly – I fully agree.
Hondo-that’s so, but still objectionable. My point it this-he’s not even gotten some sort of interim award yet? Really? The division commander could have approved a Silver Star as an interim and still sent the MOH forward to be processed.
I think most of us are justifiably cynical about this due to Meyer having raised a stink about the actions of his higher that got Joes unnecessarily killed. It stinks, especially in light of what the USMC did to make sure that its people were recognized.
Again, I think that the Army has seriously effed up the awards process during the war (there’s no one who could be a living recipient of the MOH for Iraq?!?), and I don’t see a lot of effort to correct it.
I’m just a mom, I don’t understand battle field operations. However, when my son came home on leave after a year in Astan, he and my brother were talking. My brother had been in Astan back in 2002. Several times during their conversation, my brother had to stop him and have him repeat himself…..he could not wrap his head around the ROE that my son had to fight under.
68W58 – OK, I’m in synch with you now. Didn’t catch the fact that you were commenting on no interim award initially.
Yes, the fact that no interim award was made is IMO also highly questionable – but it’s also within the chain-of-command’s prerogative to make no interim award. And the Division Commander may have not had an option; I believe the lowest level to which SS award authority can be delegated is the 3-star command level vice 2-star, even in wartime. That would again point back to the Cdr USFOR-A.
Hondo-I just think that the fact that all this time has passed and nothing has been done is a disgrace (and I believe that nothing would have been done absent all the attention given to Meyer). A commander has the obligation to do something to recognize a deserving soldier for a variety of reasons-not the least of which is the effect it has on the morale of other soldiers.
FWIW-Cashe’s Silver Star was approved by MG Taluto (although that was in 2005, and things may have changed since then), who was 42nd IDs commander at the time, and who has commented on his poor understanding of the process in Stars and Stripes last year. I’m not sure what Cashe was originally recommended for, but if he doesn’t rate the MOH, I don’t know who does and it stinks that his heroism has not been appropriately recognized-just like Swenson.
68W58: I’m guessing that MG Taluto got the green light for that (perhaps after the fact) from the MNC-I commander, who was a 3-star. As a 2-star commander in a 2-star billet, by the AR in effect at the time MG Taluto technically didn’t have the authority to approve award of the SS. The MNC-I commander, being a 3-star, did.
I agree that interim awards should be made to reward heroic acts. However, we’ve both been around to know that some commands do a better job with awards – both in terms of fairness and in proper use – than others. And I wouldn’t be too surprised to find out that Swenson’s being publicly outspoken about the ROE in effect in 2009 stopped him from receiving an interim award, either. I’ve personally seen what I consider instances of units playing favorites with awards – and I’ll guarantee Swenson speaking out like that put him on the “non-favorite” list.
Once again – I simply scratch my head. All these valor awards are for particular actions at specific moments in time. Doesn’t matter if the service member being considered is such a misfit that he spends the rest of his military career in the brig or if everyone he has ever worked with him thinks he’s an airhead. This is not the Miss Congeniality contest!
These awards are for stepping up, getting the job done, doing something extaordinary, with increasing levels of selflessness. Going above and beyond during a specific action when it made a difference. Nothing else matters.
I think everyone knows what happened to Swenson in this case. He pissed someone off and his paperwork was “lost”. He was a hell of an officer who got pushed out because he didn’t hold his tongue and act “professionally” when he was expected to. In the end someone decided to “lose” his paperwork and the army lost the kind of officer it needs. I think we have all had those moments when we were supposed to say the “right” thing and not ruffle feathers, well he had a lot more skin in the game and he spoke his mind. I honestly believe that someone with a little bit of weight on their collar got pissed and decided to hide the paperwork.
OWB: as usual, spot on. But human nature indicates that if you tell the boss he’s wrong, sometimes the boss (or someone on their staff) doesn’t take it very well. Occasionally that means good people get the short end of the stick.
Just Plain Jason: you could well be correct. At least the packet was found and is now in proper channels. Better late than never.
And if what’s been reported is true – and someone deleted the packet from the awards system w/o authority – things could get rather interesting. Such a packet is an official record of the government. Deletion of such records without proper authority may well run afoul of Federal law a couple of ways – one of which has particularly nasty consequences for someone approaching military retirement.
Just ask Oliver North. Had his conviction not been overturned on appeal, that would have cost him his military retirement pension.
This isn’t the first time the brass played politics with the MOH, I’m sure it won’t be the last.
My uncle, Jon E. Swanson http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/3428/swanson-jon-e.php, was initially recommended for the MOH by his commanding officer shortly after he was killed in action. But it was killed at the top because of the political ramifications of his death in Cambodia while in support of the ARVN. Our family had no idea that he had been recommended for the MOH until 30 years later.
After 30 years of searching for his remains (and those of his observer), they finally found a few bone fragments and planned a funeral for Arlington (we had a memorial service at Ft Logan in 1971). Amazingly, his commanding officer renewed his recommendation for the MOH, which was approved, and my cousin, with the help of a couple of Congressmen, managed to schedule both the MOH ceremony and the funeral at the same time. The MOH ceremony took place in the Rose Garden on May 1, 2002, what would have been his 60th birthday.
We had about 50 family members there and were joined by current and retired military, including living recipients of the MOH, Joe Galloway (When We Were Soldiers), and a woman who had lost her husband in the Pentagon on 9/11.
It was the experience of a lifetime and my family finally got closure after so many years.