On Jan. 6, as rioters pounded the doors leading to the House floor of the U.S. Capitol, Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego sprung into action, jumping on the House furniture to urge calm, instructing those inside to keep breathing in their gas masks and guiding them to safety.
To the Democratic congressman, an Iraq veteran, they were in a war zone, he said in his newly released book.
Gallego was in Marine mode, but his mind also tossed back to the promise he had made to take care of Lance Cpl. Jonathan Grant, his best friend in Iraq — whom he couldn’t save from an improvised explosive device, or IED, attack.
“What motivated me to move was the faces of fear that I saw on the young staffers who looked like they were about to meet their death,” Gallego told NBC News this week. “It just reminded me of the young men I served with and the faces I saw in combat.”
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