bravery rarely matched in american military history. good afternoon, i m jake tapper. on this memorial day, we have a special edition of the lead for you. in the more than 11 years that the united states has been fighting in afghanistan, more than 2,000 americans have been killed with more than 18,000 wounded. also during that time presidents bush and obama have awarded seven american service members the highest award the congressional medal of honor for actions in that war. three of those awards have been made posthumously, but this is the story of the seventh american service member to be awarded the medal of honor, former staff sergeant clint romeshay who today lives in minot, north dakota. it s 4:45 a.m. the sun is not yet up, but clint
drawing quite a bit of attention. and i finished up the belt and scurried on back. i called guil guillegos and tol i was sorry. just told him i was sorry. i couldn t that position for him anymore. and they were still stuck. clint, you can t you re one guy with no ammunition facing 400 taliban, all of them have the high ground. you can always try, though. you did. the chaos continued elsewhere on the base.
and two other men still trapped in the mortar pit. i had to bring them up on the radio and once again let them know we could still cover them from the building and overwatch them. but at that point i had to apologize once again. we couldn t make it. clint, you re so tough on yourself. you were braver that day than most of us can imagine being, and i can still hear it in your voice when you talk about talking to sergeant breeding or talking to sergeant gallegos, as if you failed that day. you didn t fail that day. yeah, but it s you know, i told them i d be there, you know. like i said, my granddad used to teach me, you know, when you tell someone you re going to do something, you do it. your actions is what makes you. and i know i m hard on myself, but, you know, it still hurts