Updated

Updated · The Washington Post · Jun 18

Trump Awards 3 Medals of Honor to Capers, Ripley and Dockery After Years of Upgrades

Updated

Updated · The Washington Post · Jun 18

Trump Awards 3 Medals of Honor to Capers, Ripley and Dockery After Years of Upgrades

Q: What forgotten details of a Vietnam ambush finally earned a hero the Medal of Honor?

The decisive details were that James Capers Jr., already badly wounded in a 1967 ambush at Phu Loc, kept commanding his nine-man Marine reconnaissance team through four days of fighting, called in air, artillery and mortar fire almost on top of his own position, and repeatedly put his men’s survival ahead of his own. Accounts of the battle show Capers suffered multiple gunshot and shrapnel wounds, a broken leg and a torn abdomen, yet refused evacuation and continued directing the defense against a larger enemy force. Every Marine under his command was wounded, and their military working dog, King, was killed. Capers then led the team to an extraction zone. The details that stood out most in the later push for the Medal of Honor were his self-sacrifice during the helicopter evacuation. He refused to board unless King’s body was taken too. When the overloaded helicopter struggled to lift off, Capers twice tried to get out to reduce weight so his wounded Marines could escape, and another serviceman had to pull him back in. Those actions had long been cited by fellow Marines and officers, who believed at the time that his valor merited the nation’s highest award. But the Medal of Honor was never granted within the normal five-year window. After years of advocacy, Congress passed legislation waiving that deadline, allowing President Donald Trump to sign the measure and clear the way for Capers, now 88, to finally receive the Medal of Honor nearly six decades later.

3 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Jun 18

Three combat veterans — retired Marine Maj. James Capers, late Marine Col. John Ripley and retired Army Maj. Nicholas Dockery — received the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony on Thursday.
Years of lobbying by fellow service members helped elevate their earlier awards: Capers had been moved from a Bronze Star with V to a Silver Star, Ripley had held the Navy Cross, and Dockery was recognized for a 2012 Afghanistan battle.
Capers, 88, was honored for leading a nine-man Marine reconnaissance unit through a 1967 Vietnam ambush despite grave wounds; Trump said the United States had kept him waiting "for far too long."
Ripley's son accepted the medal for his father, who died in 2008 after earning renown for blowing a bridge under enemy fire in 1972, while Dockery was cited for shielding a fellow soldier from a grenade and saving another in close combat.
The ceremony comes as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, with Trump framing the awards as overdue recognition for valor in Vietnam and Afghanistan.