Barack Obama awards Medal of Honor to Army vet who tackled suicide bomber

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Capt Florent Groberg was presented with the military's highest honor by President Obama on Thursday at a ceremony at the White House
Groberg, 32, tackled a suicide bomber to the ground in Afghanistan on August 8, 2012
The bomb exploded seriously injuring the soldier but his actions saved the lives of men in his unit
Groberg is only the tenth living Afghanistan or Iraq veteran to receive the Medal of Honor Read

By Kelly Mclaughlin For Dailymail.com and Associated Press

Published: 04:32 EST, 12 November 2015 | Updated: 17:12 EST, 12 November 2015

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President Barack Obama has awarded the nation's highest military honor to a former Army captain who tackled a suicide bomber while serving in Afghanistan.

Florent Groberg, 32, was awarded the Medal of Honor after being credited with saving fellow soldier's lives with his actions in August 2012.

Three service members and a foreign service officer were killed when the bomber's vest exploded. Groberg, who is medically retired from the Army, suffered a severe leg injury and underwent 33 surgeries to save it.

The ceremony took place on Thursday morning at the White House and marks only the tenth time a living service member has received the Medal of Honor for actions in Afghanistan or Iraq. Seven more were posthumously awarded the medal.

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Florent Groberg, 32, was awarded a Medal of Honor - the nation's highest military honor - by President Barack Obama on Thursday

Groberg is credited with saving fellow soldier's lives with his actions in August 2012 after he tackled a suicide bomber while serving in Afghanistan

Groberg is the tenth living recipient of the nation's highest military award for actions in Afghanistan. Seven more were posthumously awarded the medal

Obama said during the ceremony that Groberg had the instincts and courage to do what was needed.

'These actions were demanded among some of the most dreadful moments of war,' Obama said.

'On his very worst day, he managed to summon his very best,' he added. 'That's the nature of courage: not being unafraid, but confronting fear and danger and performing in a selfless fashion.'

Obama said what helped make Groberg a 'great runner' during his student days at the University of Maryland also made him a 'great soldier'.

The President said that when Groberg came to in the hospital after the explosion in August 2012, he thought he was in Germany and that the lead singer from the heavy metal band Korn was at his bedside and talking to him.

'Flo thought, "What's going on? Am I hallucinating?"' Obama said, telling the story to an audience of family, friends and others gathered for the White House medal ceremony. 'Today, Flo, I want to assure you you are not hallucinating. You are actually in the White House.'

Obama embraces retired Army Capt Groberg after presenting the former soldier with the Medal of Honor on Thursday

The Medal of Honor ceremony where Obama bestowed the medal, took place on Thursday morning at the White House

Groberg, a native of France who became a naturalized US citizen in 2001, received the highest award for a US service member, for his actions on August 8, 2012 when he hurled himself at a suicide bomber in the Afghan city of Asadabad

'Those cameras are on. I am not the lead singer from Korn,' Obama joked.

Groberg has said he shares the Medal of Honor with the four who didn't make it home alive, and that he had simply happened to be in the right place at the right time.

While he saved the lives of many, he still laments the loss of four men who were killed when a second bomber detonated his explosives on that fateful day.

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 US Agency for International Development foreign service officer.

'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?'

The Army veteran was born in Poissy, France, and became a naturalized US citizen in 2001, the same year he graduated from high school in Maryland.

Groberg sustained serious injuries to his left leg, while the blast killed four people: Command Sgt Maj Kevin J Griffin, Maj Thomas E Kennedy, Air Force Maj Walter D Gray and Ragaei Abdelfattah, a US Agency for International Development foreign service officer

Obama adjusts the medal around Groberg's neck during the ceremony on Thursday. Groberg has medically retired from the Army and now works as a civilian at the Pentagon

Obama said during the ceremony that Groberg had the instincts and courage to do what was needed when he tackled the suicide bomber

Klara Groberg (left), the mother of retired Army Capt Florent Groberg, wipes her eyes after her son was awarded the Medal of Honor during an East Room ceremony at the White House

He also competed in track and cross country at the University of Maryland before entering the Army in 2008.

Groberg worked for a civilian high-tech firm after college before joining the Army in 2008 and attending officer candidate school.

Groberg deployed to Afghanistan's Kunar Province in November 2009 and again in February 2012. He was helping lead an escort for a meeting with an Afghan provincial governor when his unit encountered the bomber.

On August 8, 2012, the day the suicide bombers attacked, Groberg was in Afghanistan.

He and Sgt. 1st Class Brian Brink led a personal security detachment that was responsible that day for escorting then-Col James Mingus, now a brigadier general assigned to Fort Carson, Colorado, to a meeting with an Afghan provincial governor.

Both Groberg and Brink said the entire team had a feeling of unease about the mission that particular day.

Obama follows Groberg as they leave the East Room of the White House in Washington following the award ceremony

Prior to the ceremony, Obama and Groberg walked the halls of the White House together on their way to the East Room on Thursday

Sgt. Andrew Mahoney (left) with his platoon leader, 1st Lt. Florent Groberg, both of whom served on a personal security detail with the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division

'It was just in the air. It's hard to explain,' Brink said in a phone interview. 'It was a family, that's the best way to describe the closeness of the team... We're so well connected that what one person is feeling, everyone is feeling.'

The first tangible sign of danger came when two motorcyclists approached the unit, starting to cross a narrow bridge but they appeared to change their minds and dismounted the motorcycles, retreating on foot.

Soon after, Groberg spotted an Afghan man he instantly recognized as a suicide bomber.

The terrorist had his thumb on a 'dead man's trigger' that would detonate if he released his grip.

Groberg said his training kicked in immediately and he shoved the man as far away from the security detail as possible and tackled him to the ground, with assistance from another soldier in the security detail, Sgt Andrew Mahoney, who earned a Silver Star.

'You just react. You don't have time to analyze the situation,' Groberg said. 'It's a threat - got to get him away from the boss. Everybody would react the same way. Mahoney reacted the exact same way. He went right with me.'

The bomber landed on Groberg's feet and detonated, which badly wounded his legs and put him in the hospital (pictured)

Injured Capt. Florent Groberg returns for the Change of Command ceremony for the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, at Fort Carson's Special Events Center, in Colorado in 2013

Retired Army Capt Florent Groberg (seen in Afghanistan in 2012) will receive the Medal of Honor for stopping a suicide bomber

It was while the man was on the ground that his vest detonated. It also caused a second suicide bomber to detonate his vest prematurely.

The explosion killed Griffin, Kennedy, Gray and Abdelfattah.

Brink said he came within a beat of shooting the suicide bomber but was forced to hold off when Groberg stepped in to tackle the man.

He said the casualties would have been far greater if he had shot the bomber, because his vest was facing the security detail.

'The scenario that we faced, somebody was going to die that day,' Brink said. 'The way the events played out, it was probably the best possible outcome. Had I actually shot him, it would have been far worse.'

It was Brink who retrieved the badly wounded Groberg and carried him to the medic.

Capt. Florent Groberg is shown with President Barack Obama; his mother, Klara Groberg; father, Larry Groberg; and friend, Matthew Sanders at Walter Reed National Medical Center, on September 11, 2012

President Barack Obama (seen visiting Groberg) will award the medal during a ceremony on November 12

Groberg has previously said that he shares the Medal of Honor with the four who didn't make it home alive after the incident

'His leg - I looked down, and the back half of his calf, it's gone,' Brink said. He dragged Groberg to a ditch where the medic, who had also been wounded, began administering care from what turned out in Groberg's case to be an agonizing, three-year recovery process.

He spent nearly three years at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and endured more than 30 surgeries.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald spoke about Groberg during a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

He said Groberg is emblematic of the sacrifices made by every generation of veterans.

'Captain Groberg acted in a manner that saved the lives of many of his comrades. Tragically, he could not save them all,' McDonald said.

He added: 'When he was informed last month that he would receive the Medal of Honor, he said, and I quote, "This medal belongs to them. It's my mission to tell everyone thank you for recognizing me, but this does not belong to me. It belongs to them. That's how I'm coping with it mentally".'

BAND OF BROTHERS: GROBERG JOINS SMALL GROUP OF HERO RECIPIENTS

The Medal of Honor is the United States of America's highest military honor, awarded for personal acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty.

The award is presented by the President of the United States to U.S. military personnel only and due to the courageous nature of the acts is most commonly presented posthumously.

There have been 3,512 Medals of Honor awarded to the nation's heroic military men and women since the decoration was created in 1862 with around half awarded to those who fought in the Civil War. Others have received the award during the Second World War, Vietnam and Afghanistan conflicts.

Today there are 78 living recipients of the military's highest decoration including former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey.

The youngest is Kyle Carpenter, 26, who was presented with the Medal of Honor last year.

Carpenter, a Marine, lost an eye and most of his jaw after fearlessly shielding a comrade from a grenade blast in Afghanistan.

The retired Corporal, from Flowood, Mississippi, was told his heroism 'will inspire for generations' when he received the award in the East Room of the White House, becoming the eighth living recipient for actions in Afghanistan or Iraq.

It came nearly four years after he threw himself on top of a grenade to save his friend, Lance Cpl. Nicholas Eufrazio, while they stood guard on a rooftop in the Helmand province in November 2010.

While Obama has awarded nearly 40 military members with the Medal of Honor, Carpenter became the third Marine to receive the award since the start of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

In 2007, Corporal Jason Dunham was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for covering a grenade with his body during an attack in Iraq in 2004. He was mortally wounded but saved the lived of at least two fellow Marines.

In 2011, Dakota Meyer became the first Marine Medal of Honor recipient out of the war in Afghanistan. In 2009, he had ignored orders to stay put and fought his way into an ambush to help rescue three dozen Afghan and American troops and to recover four dead Americans.

Last year, 24 veterans of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam - - most of Hispanic or Jewish heritage - were finally awarded the Medal of Honor after a congressionally mandated review of minorities who may have been passed over because of long-held prejudices.

The recipients included Former Sgt. Santiago Erevia who received the prestigious decoration 45 years after his heroic Vietnam battle.

In May 1969, Erevia and his Army unit had been under heavy enemy fire from the enemy.

While crawling from one wounded solder to the next, the radio telephone operator used two M-16s and several grenades to single-handedly destroy four enemy bunkers and their occupants.

Decades later, the Texas man's heroic feat earned him the Medal of Honor.

'I thought I was going to get killed when I started to advance because when you fight battles like that you don't expect to live,' he said.

The Medal of Honor is the United States of America's highest military honor, awarded for personal acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty

Erevia, cited for courage during a search and clear mission near Tam Ky, South Vietnam, on May 21, 1969, is one of just three surviving veterans from the 24 who were honored.

Former Sgt. Jose Rodela, from Corpus Christi, Texas, received the medal for bravery during fighting in Phuoc Long province, Vietnam, in early September 1969, also lives in San Antonio.

The other recipient still alive is Melvin Morris, became one of the first soldiers to don a 'green beret' in 1961 and volunteered twice for deployments to Vietnam during the war.

Morris endured massive enemy fire directed at him and his men - he was hit three times - but was able to a fellow commander who'd been killed and recover the body.

He also retrieved a map that included strategic information that would have been trouble if it fell into enemy hands.