Florent Groberg tackled a suicide bomber in Afghanistan and lived to tell about it. The Army captain received the Medal of Honor for his brave action, but he says he’s “absolutely not” a hero.
(FOX)- “The word belongs to the people that don’t come home,” he says. “I’m just a soldier doing my job.”
Still, his heroic act in 2012 has become the stuff of legend.
Groberg, 33, was born in France to an American father and French mother of Algerian descent. He came to the U.S. in 1994 at the age of 11, learned English while growing up in Maryland and became determined to join the military after the September 11 terror attacks.
He became a U.S. citizen and entered basic training in 2008, and one year later he was in Afghanistan, leading a platoon that patrolled villages, fought the Taliban and supported the locals as they built their own government.
He said the war zone made him “a little overwhelmed and nervous at first, because … men could die on my watch.
“In combat, there were definitely some tough parts … where you’re under fire, when you realize, holy macaroni, there’s a human being that’s actually trying to kill me right now. But you have your men next to you, and you’re all in sync working together.”