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Bellavia then to the roof \"where he engaged and wounded a fifth insurgent, who fell from the roof of the building.\"

For his heroism, Bellavia was awarded the Silver Star, the nation's third highest award for valor; the Distinguished Service Cross is the nation's second highest. His award is being upgraded to the Medal of Honor as part of the Pentagon's three-year review of valor awards for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that was prompted by concerns that acts of heroism were not being appropriately honored.

David Bellavia enlisted in the United States Army in 1999 and after serving in Kosovo, he deployed to Iraq in 2004 with Company A, Task Force 2-2, 1st Infantry Division.

Since leaving the Army in August 2005 Bellavia has been active in veterans advocacy groups and philanthropic organizations.

Bellavia is also the host of a radio talk show for WBEN in Buffalo, New York.

On Monday morning, Bellavia told his listeners the news of his award was \"not really registering.\"

\"I'm going to see guys I haven't seen in 15 years. I'm going to think about them. I'm going to just think about the guys we lost the most,\" said Bellavia. \"It just brings you right back.

\"One guy gets attention, but none of that's possible without the work of, you know, 25 guys that nobody talks about,\" he said. \"And in this fight, in this circumstance, it was just a group of guys that were out-gunned, and we -- we fought our way through it together.\"

\"This award is our award, and they're, we all consider it something that we did together,\" he added.

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