But when a crucial printing machine broke down recently, he told me he faced a mountain of red tape and delays just to buy in the necessary spare part.
In conferring the medal, President Barack Obama described the conditions faced by Romesha and 52 other soldiers when they came under attack from mortar, rocket-propelled grenade, machine-gun and sniper fire on October 3, 2009, at Combat Outpost Keating in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan.