In this Sept. 7, 2017 photo, Eric Swenson, poses for a photo in Champaign, Ill., Swenson joined the Army shortly after his graduation from Princeton High School in 2005, and served in Ar-Ramadi, Iraq, as part of the surge, a deployment of more than 20,000 soldiers to assist with the war on terror, from 2006 to 2007. Swenson was on a base that was attacked three or four times a day, whether it was mortars, rocked-propelled grenades or sniper fire. Yet, He downplays the danger he was in, saying that the infantry serving outside the base faced was far worse.(Rick Danzl/The News-Gazette via AP )
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