{"id":54122,"date":"2014-07-23T09:38:02","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T13:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=54122"},"modified":"2014-07-23T09:46:28","modified_gmt":"2014-07-23T13:46:28","slug":"ryan-pitts-and-his-medal-of-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=54122","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Pitts and his Medal of Honor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HandH\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Three years ago I went on an outback excursion into the mountains of Montana with the Heroes and Horses program. \u00a0At the time Demophilus blogged about it, which you can READ HERE<\/a>. \u00a0Demophilus and I served together in the Army in Afghanistan, and we were paired up with a Forward Observer and an Infantryman from the 173rd Airborne. \u00a0The four of us shared a cabin, and later a tent when we headed up into the woods. \u00a0Over the ensuing week we got to know each other fairly well, telling stories, drinking adult beverages and just hanging out. \u00a0It was simply an amazing week.<\/p>\n

At the time the forward observer and the infantryman were just Ryan and Mongo, two guys that were awesome to hang out with, and have a ton of laughs. \u00a0Not sure if my body ended up hurting more from a week on a horse or a week of laughing nonstop. \u00a0Tonight (or maybe tomorrow) Ryan will be on the David Letterman show, a far cry from where we were in the mountains with no cell service, much less TV.<\/p>\n

On Monday I was honored to be one of Ryan’s guests as he received our nation’s highest honor for military service, the Medal of Honor. \u00a0Mongo was there as well, proudly wearing a lapel pin which showed his Silver Star. \u00a0The picture above is the four of us (from L to R, Mike “Mongo” Denton, Ryan Pitts, me, and Demophilius) as we once again enjoyed beverages and stories at a local American Legion post after the White House ceremony.<\/p>\n

Demophilius had a great comment to me as he drove me back to Marymount University to go back to my life as a counselor at Boys Nation.<\/p>\n

“It’s a little like hanging out with Peter Parker years before you found out he was Spiderman” he said. \u00a0It’s about as close to understanding our feelings as you can get. \u00a0The Ryan I knew, and know, is a guy who smiles constantly. \u00a0The Ryan in the video receiving his just reward was a stone faced paratrooper who brought a lot of Taliban to their just reward.<\/p>\n