By Gabriella Borter
(Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday recognized seven veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars with the Medal of Honor and awarded eight law enforcement officers the Medal of Valor for acts of extreme courage that went “beyond the call of duty.”
The Medal of Valor is the country’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 The Covenant School in Nashville in March 2023, where a former student shot and killed six people.
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Biden presented the officers with their Medals of Valor in the Oval Office shortly after 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) in what was initially planned as a private ceremony, and then made remarks to the press.
“What they did is amazing. They literally put their lives at risk,” Biden said.
“You’re the best that America has to offer,” he added, acknowledging the group of eight men.
Biden was scheduled to award the Medals of Honor, which are esteemed military awards, at a ceremony in the White House’s East Room at 5 p.m. EST.
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 it 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.
(Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Washington; Editing by Heather Timmons, Tomasz Janowski and Nia Williams)
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