Lt. Col Allen West is a hero if ever there was one:
From wikipedia:
While serving in Taji, Iraq on August 20, 2003 as commander of the 2d Battalion 20th Field Artillery, 4th Infantry Division, Lieutenant Colonel West was in charge of the interrogation of an Iraqi police officer who was suspected of having information about planned attacks on American forces. According to the Iraqi police officer, Yehiya Kadoori Hamoodi claimed that during the interrogation, soldiers under West’s supervision assaulted him attempting to get him to talk.
The police officer insisted that he did not know anything about planned attacks and was loyal to the United States Army. However, when the detainee didn’t talk, Lieutenant Colonel West fired his 9mm pistol close to the man’s head and at this point, the man gave information about a planned ambush, resulting in its being thwarted. According to West, there were no further ambushes on U.S. forces in Taji until he was relieved of command on October 4, 2003.
In an interview with the New York Times the Iraqi police officer, Yehiya Kadoori Hamoodi, said he felt he must have been falsely implicated by another alleged informant as being a plotting assassin and that the information he provided was useless and obtained under duress.
West, who at the time was just short of having 20 years of service, was charged with violating articles 128 (assault) and 134 (general article) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and was in danger of receiving an 11 year prison sentence, dishonorable discharge and losing his retirement benefits. West was processed through an Article 32 hearing in November 2003, where he admitted wrongdoing, was fined $5,000 over two months for misconduct and assault. He then submitted his resignation, and was allowed to retire with full benefits in the summer of 2004.
After West’s resignation was brought to public attention the next Fall, he received over two thousand letters and e-mails from the American public offering him moral support. In addition, a letter was drafted to the secretary of the Army, its signatories being ninety-five members of Congress in West’s support. Even a prominent critic of the Abu Graib affair, Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia, wrote a letter to his constituents in support of West’s honorable intentions during the controversial incident.
In January 2004, the conservative Frontpage Magazine named West its Man of the Year.[1]
Wow.