I'm not upset with the president for honoring that soldier.

[joshcryer]

57. Army rotation = 12 months. Ranger rotation = 3-6 months.

So he was deployed 30-60 months. An Army guy in Afghanistan over 10 years would have been deployed 72 months. In Iraq 52 months. This is assuming a 12 month recoup time for Army, with no recoup time for rangers. In reality rangers get 1 day recoup (dwell) time for every day abroad, so you can half it to 15-30 months deployed, in reality, but the deployments probably varied.

The thing is that he was, as a ranger, in a very very hostile and debilitating territory. A lot of military men never even saw combat. This guy was at the front lines the entire time. It was only a matter of time before he got injured.

That should be the real takeaway, not that he went out 10 times, but that he was forced to go out 10 times. Showing that the US's war expansion was unsupportable from the beginning. And that's what Obama effectively said. No more war state.