SSgt, U.S. Army — War on Terror
Clinton LaVor Romesha was born on August 17, 1981, in Lake City, California, into a family with a deep tradition of military service. His maternal grandfather fought at Normandy in World War II, and his father served in Vietnam; two of his brothers also joined the military. He graduated from Surprise Valley High School in 1999 and enlisted in the U.S. Army that September, training as an M1 Abrams armor crewman at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
His early assignments took him around the world: tank gunner with the 1st Battalion, 63rd Armor in Germany, including a Kosovo deployment; then gunner and assistant tank commander with the 2nd Battalion, 72nd Armor in South Korea. After a mentor was killed in Iraq, he volunteered for a tour there. Later, at Fort Carson, Colorado, he retrained as a Cavalry Scout with Troop B, 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, completing the Long Range Reconnaissance Course, Advanced Leader Course, and Air Assault Training, and served a second Iraq deployment. In May 2009 the unit deployed to Afghanistan and took over Combat Outpost Keating, a remote valley-floor position in Nuristan Province that commanders had already judged indefensible.
On the morning of October 3, 2009, roughly 300 Taliban fighters attacked the outpost from the surrounding ridges, breaching the perimeter and seizing the ammunition depot. Romesha, then a section leader, repeatedly crossed open ground to reconnoiter the battlefield and rally reinforcements. He eliminated an enemy machine gun team, and while engaging a second, the generator he was using for cover was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, wounding him in the neck, shoulder, and arms. Despite his injuries, he assembled a five-man counterattack team, directed close air support that destroyed dozens of attackers, and laid down suppressive fire so wounded soldiers could reach the aid station. He fought through the full 12-hour battle, in which eight Americans were killed and 27 wounded — one of the costliest engagements of the war.
Romesha left the Army in April 2011 and settled in Minot, North Dakota, where he built a career in oil-field construction, eventually working as a field safety specialist. On February 11, 2013, President Barack Obama presented him with the Medal of Honor at the White House. He later published the memoir Red Platoon (2016), his account of the Battle of Kamdesh, and in 2017 donated his original Medal of Honor to the 4th Infantry Division.
Sources: Wikipedia · Congressional Medal of Honor Society