Written by Gabriella Porter
(Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday awarded the Medal of Honor to seven veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars and awarded the Medal of Valor to eight law enforcement officers for acts of extreme valor above and beyond the call of duty.
The Medal of Valor is the nation's highest award for public safety officers. Among the recipients were five members of the Nashville, Tennessee, Police Department who responded to a shooting at Covenant School in Nashville in March 2023, where a former student shot and killed six people.
Biden presented the officers with medals of bravery in the Oval Office on Friday afternoon in what was initially planned to be a private ceremony, and then made remarks to the press.
“What they did was amazing. They literally put their lives in danger,” Biden said.
“You are the best America has to offer,” he added, praising the group of eight men.
Biden received the Medals of Honor, prestigious military awards, at an evening ceremony held in the East Room of the White House. He admitted that it was one of his last acts as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
He said: “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.”
Kenneth J. David, who served as a radio telephone operator during the Vietnam War, was the only Medal of Honor recipient on Friday. The other six received the honor posthumously, with their relatives accepting it on their behalf.
David, whom Biden called an “outright American hero,” distracted enemy forces attacking his company in Vietnam in May 1970, and rescued wounded fellow soldiers at his own expense.
David, who was injured while rescuing fellow soldiers, received a standing ovation after Biden placed the medal around his neck.
