Former Capt. Swenson will be awarded MOH

[SOTB]

Originally Posted by Max V.

....the battalion XO had to be woken up several times to come to the TOC(that should tell you everything you need to know about that).

Damn.

Originally Posted by Max V.

IMO, some orders are meant to be disobeyed, especially when you've got uparmored gun trucks and you are sitting there watching guys drive back into the valley.

When I was in, I never saw a situation where units were denied support. I'm not about to state that it never happened or would never happen -- just that I never once saw it.

Fast forward a decade or so, and I'm a civvie in a strange situation. I have people working for me that are armed, I'm in a war zone, and I am not a mil guy nor on any fixed contract with fixed rules -- and beholden to no one. I have had the opportunity on more than one occasion to respond to mil units needing support and fortunately, everything worked out OK. Still, when we went in -- it never dawned on me not to. This has nothing to do with being a badass -- I simply didn't even have the possibility of refusing assisting in my BHG -- call it stupidity or whatever.

Granted, having no rules isn't a great way to run a war -- but I certainly would not have wanted to be on the opposite end of the extreme and in the situation that Capt Swenson and his men were....