Boy am I excited tonight.
My son called me to tell me a great story. Captain William Swenson spoke at Loyola today.
Here is just one of the many articles you can find on him.
As some of you know David is attending Loyola grad school working on his Masters Degree be be a social worker at the VA. When he heard about Capt Swenson coming to speak there he didn't think he would go hear him speak. He was suppose to be at his internship job on the south side. He wasn't going to get off work on time to get there. His supervisor told David he had to go.
His former Top Sergent also told him he had to go. As a matter of fact Top was going to be in Chicago today and he wanted to go as well. It didn't work out for Top so he missed out.
David already knew Capt Swenson was in Afghanistan at the same time as David and his unit was over there. In their conversation Top told David that he met the Captain while over there. This was before the now famous firefight. They were all on the same base. Top also told David that one of the people on their team had also been on the captain's team. David was thinking it was one of the guys from their Guard Unit. It wasn't. It was a captain that had been assigned to them while they were in country. I won't say much about this other captain other than he is a POS that on several occasions nearly got my son and others on the team killed by his neglect.
After Capt Swenson's speech they had the typical Q&A session. Based on their questions, David mentioned to the young lady who was with him who had been in the Army. Who was in ROTC and who were civilians. She asked David if he was going to ask a question. David said no. The captain doesn't want to be here. This is his second presentation today. He is obligated to make these appearances because of his medal. The captain mentioned that he has been in dress blues 4 times in his life. 3 times since being presented the medal. Until the Medal of Honor he never went to any of his promotions or award ceremonies.
That was the background-
So David went up and waited his turn to speak to him afterward. When it was his turn, David said "thank you sir. You probably don't remember but we met in Afghanistan. We were at Camp Julien together. " The captain's eyes light up. Knowing that not too many people know the camp. David also said, "I inherited Captain ****** after you."
Capt Swenson said, "OH NO!!!!! I am so sorry for you." David just beamed at that.
The young lady waiting behind them said she wanted to take their picture. David turn back around and said "I am sorry Captain. I tried to save you from this but I have to ask you if we can get a picture together." Of course he said yes.
I will post it when I get a copy.