President to Award Medal of Honor to Retired Army Captain

He is the third Fort Carson soldier to receive the award – the military’s highest honor for conspicuous gallantry – for actions during the war in Afghanistan.

Upon his return in 2010 he transferred to the brigade personal security detachment for the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division and deployed to Kunar Province Afghanistan with Task Force Mountain Warrior in February 2012.

In the ensuing confusion a second suicide bomber meant to hit the patrol detonated his vest prematurely, sending the debris and shrapnel into a nearby building.

Ball bearings tore through one of Groberg’s legs, leaving him with 45-percent less muscle in one calf.

Groberg received medical treatment on the spot for a badly injured leg and was hauled into the back of an armored truck. I have to get him away from everybody, ‘ ” Groberg said in an interview with the Army Times. “I figured, all right, I must have stepped on an IED, because I couldn’t remember anything”.

“It was the worst day of my life”, he said, “because even though we defeated the enemy, I lost four of my brothers”. “I must be in the kill zone, and they’re probably going to follow up with small-arms fire”.

Groberg will be the 10th living recipient to receive the Medal of Honor for actions in Afghanistan. He required extensive surgery and therapy, spending nearly three years at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center until May.

He now works as a civilian employee for the Department of Defense. “It is not every day that one of the most powerful and influential figures in the world calls your cellphone”, Groberg said.

As the group entered the compound, Groberg told the Gazette newspaper in Colorado Springs, Colo., that he saw an Afghan walking backward and acting suspicious. In between deployments, he served as a Platoon Leader, Infantry Company Executive Officer and a Brigade Personnel Security Detachment Commander at Fort Carson. Kevin J. Griffin, U.S. Army Maj. Thomas E. Kennedy, the brigade’s fire support coordinator; Air Force Maj. Walter D. Gray, and Ragaei Abdelfattah, a representative of the U.S. Agency for global Development.

Groberg was born in Poissy, France, in 1983 and became a naturalized USA citizen in 2001.