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SEAL, vets lauded at Republican convention

A tribute to a Navy SEAL who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for valor in Iraq, and an endorsement by former prisoners of war for Sen. John McCain’s bid to become president, were key features Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

The actions of Navy Master-At-Arms 2nd Class (SEAL) Michael A. Monsoor, mortally wounded in a September 2006 firefight in Ramadi, Iraq, were featured in a short film shown at the convention.

Monsoor, who joined the Navy in 2001 before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saved the lives of three other people — including two nearby SEALs — by covering a grenade with his own body. Additionally, Monsoor received a Silver Star for a May 2006 incident in which he saved an injured service member by running into a street and into the line of fire to pull him to safety.

Monsoor’s sister, Sara, and two fellow SEALs were present as the film was shown. Five or six living Medal of Honor recipients — there was a discrepancy in the number, depending on who was counting, that convention officials did not immediately clarify — also were present.

About two dozen former prisoners of war, led by former Marine Corps Capt. Orson Swindle III, also appeared at the convention Tuesday to support McCain, a fellow POW. Swindle, who spent seven years as a prisoner of war — including some time in the same Vietnam prison as McCain, who was held for 5½ years — is one of McCain’s closet friends, according to campaign officials. Swindle has been one of the most vocal defenders of McCain from attacks that McCain received preferential treatment as a POW.

Also speaking at the convention was a disabled veteran, retired Army Capt. Leslie Smith, whose 2001 deployment to Bosnia as a public affairs officer with the 29th Infantry Division was cut short after she developed a blood clot that eventually led to the amputation of her left foot. She later developed other complications that left her blind in one eye.

“For months afterwards, I thought to myself, ‘Why me?’ I was a public affairs officer just doing my job in a war zone,” Smith said. “I didn’t lose my leg to a roadside bomb or flying shrapnel. Now, I’m not telling you this to gain your sympathy, or to garner your respect. ... I tell you this because the most liberating day of my life came when I stopped saying ‘Why me?’, and started saying, ‘Why not me?’

“As I woke up from my first surgery and saw that my left foot was gone, I whispered to my mother, ‘But I used to be a cheerleader.’ And she whispered back, ‘Now, you can be the coach,’” Smith said.