Rep. Doggett meets Medal of Honor recipient, Captain William Swenson

November 13, 2013

Great opportunity to have dinner last evening with the most recent recipient of the Medal of Honor, Captain William Swenson, a U.S. Army Ranger.

Captain Swenson received the Medal of Honor for his courageous actions, by standing guard over a wounded soldier as a medical helicopter arrived in the middle of a battle, while serving in Afghanistan in 2009. Captain Swenson provided a moving presentation of the Gettysburg Address, which followed an insightful discussion with Lincoln biographer, Michael Burlingame in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress.

This is the fourth in a series of lectures about great American presidents—Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln. Rare copies of the Gettysburg Address and the Inaugural addresses in Lincoln’s long hand were exhibited. Now open to the public at the Library is a fine display about the Civil War tragedy that is now estimated to have taken over 750,000 lives in a country with only about one tenth the population of present day America.