Author: Gabriella Borter
(Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday honored seven veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars with the Medal of Honor and awarded eight police officers with the Medal of Valor for acts of exceptional bravery that went “beyond the call of duty.”
The Medal of Valor is the highest state award for public safety officers. Recipients included five police officers in Nashville, Tennessee, who responded to the March 2023 shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, where a former student shot and killed six people.
Biden presented the officers with medals of valor in the Oval Office on Friday afternoon, initially planned as a private ceremony, and then made remarks to reporters.
“What they did is unbelievable. They literally put their lives at risk,” Biden said.
“You are the best America has to offer,” he added, acknowledging the group of eight men.
Biden awarded the Medals of Honor, the military’s prized honor, in an evening ceremony in the East Room of the White House. He admitted that it was one of his last acts as commander-in-chief.
“It was the greatest honor of my life to be entrusted with the greatest fighting force in the history of the world and the best army in the history of the world,” he said.
Kenneth J. David, who served as a radio operator during the Vietnam War, was the only living recipient of the Medal of Honor on Friday. The other six received the honor posthumously, and their relatives accepted it on their behalf.
David, whom Biden called an “outspoken American hero,” repulsed enemy forces attacking his company in Vietnam in May 1970, rescuing wounded fellow soldiers at his own expense.
David, who was wounded saving his comrades, received a standing ovation after Biden placed the medal around his neck.
