By Gabriella Borter
(Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday was due to recognize seven veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars with the Medal of Honor and eight law enforcement officers with the Medal of Valor for acts of extreme courage that “went beyond the call of duty.”
Kenneth J. David, who served as a radio-telephone operator during the Vietnam War, was listed as the only living recipient of the Medal of Honor on Friday, while six others were due to receive the esteemed military award posthumously. David distracted enemy forces that were attacking his company in Vietnam in May 1970, saving wounded fellow soldiers at his own expense, the White House said. He was wounded but survived the attack.
Among the recipients of the Medal of Valor, the highest award for public safety officers, were five members of the Nashville, Tennessee police department who responded to a shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville in March 2023, when a former student shot and killed six people.
Biden was scheduled to award the Medals of Valor in a private ceremony in the Oval Office at 12:20 p.m. EST (1720 GMT) and was due to award the Medals of Honor at a ceremony open to the press in the White House’s East Room at 5 p.m. EST.
(Reporting by Gabriella Borter; Editing by Heather Timmons and Tomasz Janowski)
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