Biden honors Vietnam Struggle veterans, Nashville police with presidential medals By Reuters

By Gabriella Borter

(Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday awarded the Medal of Honor to seven veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars and awarded eight legislation enforcement officers the Medal of Valor for acts of utmost braveness who went “above and past the decision of responsibility.”

The Medal of Valor is the best honor bestowed upon the nation’s public security officers. The recipients included 5 members of the Nashville, Tennessee, Police Division who responded to a taking pictures at Covenant College in Nashville in March 2023, the place a former scholar fatally shot six folks.

Biden introduced the officers with their Medals of Valor within the Oval Workplace Friday afternoon in what was initially deliberate as a non-public ceremony, then made remarks to the press.

“What they did is unimaginable. They actually put their lives on the road,” Biden mentioned.

“You’re the finest America has to supply,” he added, greeting the group of eight males.

Biden awarded the Medals of Honor, that are esteemed army awards, throughout a night ceremony within the East Room of the White Home. He acknowledged that it was considered one of his final acts as commander-in-chief.

“It has been the best honor of my life to be entrusted with the best preventing pressure within the historical past of the world and the best military within the historical past of the world,” he mentioned.

Kenneth J. David, who served as a radio operator in the course of the Vietnam Struggle, was the one dwelling Medal of Honor recipient Friday. The opposite six acquired the honour posthumously, with their family members accepting it on their behalf.

David, whom Biden referred to as a “pure American hero,” distracted enemy forces attacking his firm in Vietnam in Might 1970, saving his wounded comrades at his personal expense.

David, who was injured saving his fellow troopers, acquired a standing ovation after Biden positioned the medal round his neck.