President Obama awarded former Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Pitts the Medal of Honor Monday, making Pitts the ninth living solider to receive the nation's highest military award for valor in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Pitts is the lone survivor of one of the most deadly fights in the Afghan war, the 2008 Battle of Wanat, in which nine soldiers died and 27 were left wounded.
After Taliban militants attacked his post, Pitts was wounded by grenade shrapnel in his left arm and both legs. Although unable to walk, Pitts continued to fight for over an hour, pulling himself up onto his knees and forcing his legs into position to wield his machine gun and throw grenades.
Once he realized he was fighting alone, Pitts managed to gain contact with his command post. He stayed on the radio even while nearly unconscious from blood loss, until he was finally medically evacuated two hours after the assault had begun.
Pitts' commanders credit him as the "lynchpin" in saving his outpost from falling into the Taliban's hand.
Pitts received a medical discharge from the Army in 2009, and now lives in New Hampshire working in computer software.
