In this photo made on Wednesday, May 5, 2010, Lt. Andrew Bundermann, 25, with Bravo Troop, 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry, poses for a portrait at Forward Operating Base Bostick in Kunar province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan. (Associated Press/Dusan Vranic)
With more than 300 Taliban fighters firing rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and heavy weapons at 54 soldiers trapped in a remote mountain outpost in Afghanistan, Andrew Bundermann quickly realized his platoon was in deep trouble.
"It's really happening. It's not a dream. It's not a movie," he thought to himself that October morning nearly 10 years ago. "It's actually happening."
Then, drawing on his training, the young U.S. Army 1st lieutenant from Bovey, Minn., got to work.
The Battle of Kamdesh on Oct. 3, 2009, gave America a story of heroism and brotherhood, but at a terrible cost: Eight Americans were killed, and 27 were wounded. Now the fight that pitted a handful of soldiers at Combat Outpost Keating in eastern Afghanistan against several hundred enemy insurgents, is receiving the silver screen treatment, according to an exclusive by The Hollywood Reporter.
Clint Romesha doesn’t carry himself like a recipient of our nation’s highest award for valor. He’s humble — shy, even. Not the brash, larger-than-life Captain America we tend to imagine war heroes to be. And that speaks to the kind of soldier he was on Oct. 3, 2009, when 300 Taliban fighters launched a brazen assault on the remote outpost where his U.S. Army cavalry troop was based in the Kamdesh district of eastern Afghanistan. On that day, Romesha didn’t earn the Medal of Honor by being a hero. He earned it by getting the job done.
