Trump awards Medal of Honor to Vietnam and Afghanistan veterans in White House ceremony celebrating battlefield heroism
President Donald Trump awarded the Medal of Honor on Thursday to three U.S. service members in recognition of extraordinary battlefield bravery in Vietnam and Afghanistan.
Marine Corps Maj. James Capers Jr. and Army Maj. Nicholas Dockery received the nation’s highest military honor in person, while Marine Corps Col. John W. Ripley, who died in 2008, was honored posthumously.
“These are great men, great people,” Trump said at the ceremony. “We thank you, and we will never, ever forget you.”
Capers, 88, was recognized for his actions during a 1967 Vietnam War mission that turned into days of intense jungle combat after his unit was ambushed while conducting reconnaissance. Outnumbered and severely wounded by a mine explosion that left him with a broken leg and abdominal injuries, Capers continued to lead his team under fire.
After receiving morphine, he resumed command of the firefight, directing defensive efforts and calling in air support to break the ambush, according to accounts of the mission. When a rescue helicopter arrived, he ensured all wounded Marines were loaded first before boarding himself.
Trump personally presented Capers with the Medal of Honor, pausing to adjust the medal as it was placed around his neck.
Ripley was honored for his actions in 1972 during the Vietnam War, when he helped halt a major North Vietnamese advance by destroying a key bridge in Dong Ha. Facing an approaching force of tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks, Ripley spent hours rigging explosives along the structure while exposed to enemy fire.
Over multiple trips across the bridge’s beams, he placed charges before detonating the structure, collapsing it into the water and stopping the advance. Ripley died in 2008, and his family attended the ceremony.
Dockery was recognized for his heroism during a 2012 firefight in Afghanistan’s Kapisa Province, where his platoon was ambushed by a large Taliban force. He moved across open ground to regroup his scattered soldiers and locate the wounded under fire.
He carried a wounded comrade to safety, killed two enemy fighters threatening another injured soldier, and performed CPR to revive him. Dockery then coordinated mortar and air support, used smoke to mark enemy positions, and shielded wounded soldiers during explosions.
He remained in the fight until all injured personnel were evacuated from the battlefield.
Trump told Dockery he had been “the last man to depart the battlefield,” calling his actions heroic and legendary.
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