President Trump presented his eighth Medal of Honor to the family of Army Staff Sgt. Travis Atkins, who gave his life in 2007 to save fellow soldiers from an Iraqi suicide bomber.
Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump can recognize individuals for contributions to the arts and humanities, to science and technology and for other gifts to American society, but the Medal of Honor is one of the only awards he gives out regularly, recognizing military members living or dead for acts of bravery against an enemy.
"In his final moments on Earth, Travis did not run. He didn’t know what it was to run. He did not hesitate. He rose to the highest calling, he laid down his life to save the lives of his fellow warriors," Trump said the White House ceremony Wednesday."In so doing, he embodied the deepest meaning of the motto of the 10th Mountain Division. He climbed to glory. Now Travis is looking down from above on all of us, on all of his fellow warriors, on his great family.
"When Staff Sergeant Atkins faced the unenviable choice of being a survivor or a hero, he chose the latter," said Sherman Gillums Jr., chief advocacy officer for AMVETS, a veterans service organization."His actions, while costing him his life, gave new life to those he'd saved and will forever be embodied by the Medal of Honor."
The 80-year-old Canley's heroism during the Vietnam War included twice scaling a hospital wall in view of the enemy to help extract wounded Marines.
Presidents often get credit for putting the medal and its familiar blue ribbon on living recipients, but they have little say in who ultimately gets them. But as years stretched into decades, some of the Marines who fought alongside Canley pushed for the Oxnard, California, resident to receive the medal. After reviewing the case, then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis agreed in December 2017 that Canley deserved the honor. Trump then signed legislation waiving the time limit on awarding the medal.
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