Trump Awards Medal of Honor to Three Military Veterans for Exceptional Valor

President Donald J. Trump will present the Medal of Honor on Thursday, June 18, 2026, to three military service members for their extraordinary acts of gallantry and intrepidity during combat operations spanning multiple decades.

Major James Capers, Jr. (U.S. Marine Corps, Retired) will receive the award for his heroic leadership during a four-day reconnaissance patrol in Vietnam from March 31 to April 3, 1967. Then-Second Lieutenant Capers served as Team Leader with 3d Force Reconnaissance Company, tasked with locating a North Vietnamese regimental base camp. Despite encountering a numerically superior enemy force on three separate occasions, he directed fire onto an enemy base camp, thwarting an impending attack on a nearby Marine battalion. When his patrol was ambushed by a claymore mine on the final day, Capers sustained multiple severe wounds but continued to lead his team, coordinate supporting fire, and direct movement to an extraction site. He refused evacuation until all his men were safe, ensuring the entire team was extracted before boarding the helicopter.

Colonel John W. Ripley (U.S. Marine Corps, Posthumous) will receive the Medal of Honor for actions on April 2, 1972, while serving as Senior Marine Advisor to the Third Vietnamese Marine Corps Infantry Battalion. Facing a major North Vietnamese mechanized assault aimed at capturing a strategic bridge in Dong Ha, Captain Ripley single-handedly moved 500 pounds of explosives into position. For three hours, he repeatedly exposed himself to intense enemy fire, climbing beneath the bridge along its steel beams to emplace explosive charges at critical structural points. After successfully setting the charges, he detonated them, completely destroying the bridge and halting the enemy's advance.

Major Nicholas Dockery (U.S. Army, Retired) will be honored for his valor on October 2, 2012, while serving as Platoon Leader, 2d Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment in Kapisa Province, Afghanistan. When a large and well-armed Taliban force ambushed his platoon, Second Lieutenant Dockery fought to maintain contact with the enemy over four hours in restricted urban terrain, personally risking his life on numerous occasions to protect and evacuate three wounded platoon members. After reorganization, he directed rotary wing aircraft in defense against subsequent enemy counter-attacks from an exposed rooftop while his unit evacuated the wounded soldiers.

The Medal of Honor recognizes members of the armed forces who distinguish themselves conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of their own lives above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in action against an enemy of the United States or in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force.