Trump awards Medal of Honor to 3 veterans of the Vietnam, Afghanistan wars

President Trump on Thursday conferred two Vietnam War veterans and one veteran of the Afghanistan War with the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award. In a ceremony at the White House, the president paid tribute to retired Marine Corps Maj. James Capers Jr., retired Army Maj. Nicholas Dockery and Marine Col. John W. Ripley, who died in 2008. Among those who attended the ceremony were Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Retired Marine Corps Maj. James Capers President Trump awards the Medal of Honor to retired Marine Corps Maj. James Capers Jr. in the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 18, 2026. Ken Cedeno /AFP via Getty Images Capers, now 88, was part of a four-day reconnaissance patrol in Vietnam in March and April of 1967, according to the White House. On the final day of the patrol, his battalion was ambushed by a claymore mine and came under heavy enemy fire, during which he suffered multiple gunshot wounds. "Shrapnel peppered his body in 17 places," Mr. Trump said during the ceremony. "… Every one of his fellow Marines went down wounded, but Jim rose, pushing forward on a leg that shouldn't have been able to carry any of his weight. After a shot of morphine, Jim asserted command of the firefight." Capers successfully led his team to an extraction site, where he refused to evacuate before all his men were safely aboard the rescue helicopter. …