President Barack Obama on Tuesday awarded the Medal of Honour to Sergeant 1st Class Leroy Petry, only the second time since Vietnam that a living person has received the nation’s highest military award.
Petry, 31, was awarded the medal for actions taken in May 2008 during a raid against Taliban insurgents in the Afghanistan province of Paktia.
Although he had been shot through both legs, Petry managed to grab a live grenade and toss it away in time to save his fellow soldiers.
The grenade exploded at the moment that he threw it, destroying his hand. But he continued to fight, saving the lives of two of his fellow soldiers.
“Leroy Petry showed that true heroes still exist,” said Obama during a White House ceremony.
The Medal of Honour, designed to honour “acts of heroism above and beyond the call of duty,” was first awarded in 1863, and some 3,500 times since then, almost always posthumously.
Before Petry, Sergeant Salvatore Giunta had been the first living soldier since 1973 to receive the award, at the end of 2010.
According to a website about Medal of Honour recipients, only 84 are still alive in addition to Petry: 15 from World War II, 13 from the Korean War, 55 from Vietnam, and one from Afghanistan.