President Obama will award the military’s highest honor to a University of Maryland alumnus for his service in Afghanistan.
Capt. Florent A. Groberg will receive the Medal of Honor in a Nov. 12 ceremony, making him the 10th living recipient of the award for actions in Afghanistan, according to a White House news release.
Groberg, who was born in France and became a U.S. citizen when he was 18, competed in varsity track and cross country at this university. He joined the Army two years after graduating with a degree in criminology and criminal justice in 2006, the news release states.
He quickly rose through the Army’s ranks, and by July 2012 was promoted to captain. A month later, he faced the attack for which he is being honored.
On Aug. 8, 2012, six soldiers, including Groberg, were providing a security detail for senior Army leaders in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province. Groberg noticed a man with “an abnormal bulge” under his clothing coming out of a building and heading toward the group, according to an Army account of the attack.
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Groberg grabbed the man and pushed him away from the patrol group. The man — a suicide bomber — landed on the ground, releasing the trigger. A second suicide bomber set off his bomb within moments. Five of the men on the mission were killed, including four soldiers, the Army account states, but not the commander Groberg had been charged with protecting.
Immediately after the attack, Groberg’s “fibia was sticking out of my left leg, my skin was melting, and there was blood everywhere,” he said in the Army account. He has spent the last three years recovering at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the White House release states.
“Receiving the Medal of Honor is not about me,” he said in the Army account. “It’s about a terrible day that translated into the loss of four brothers.”
