President Donald Trump awarded the Medal of Honor to a retired Army captain during a White House ceremony on Monday. The event occurred as the president is embroiled in a controversy over his condolence call to the widow of an army sergeant recently killed during a mission in the African nation of Niger.
Gary Rose, 69, was awarded the honor for extraordinary heroism during a special forces secret mission in November 1970 against North Vietnamese forces in the Laotian jungle called “Operation Tailwind”.
Over four days of combat, according to the citation, without stopping to eat or sleep, Rose repeatedly ran into enemy fire to rescue and treat 60 to 70 men, even after being wounded himself by shrapnel.
“You've earned the eternal gratitude of the entire American nation. You faced down the evils of communism, you defended our flag, and you showed the world the unbreakable resolve of the American Armed Forces,” Trump told Rose at the ceremony.
Though Roses was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross the year after his heroic acts. Some believe he was not awarded the Medal of Honor because the mission in Laos was not declassified until many years later.
Congress passed specific legislation allowing him to finally be awarded the Medal of Honor so many years after the usual five-year limit.
After the ceremony, Rose said the award is a collective medal of his unit and of all the special forces members who died in the conflict in Southeast Asia.
美国总统川普星期一在白宫的仪式上把荣誉勋章授予一位退役陆军上尉。川普总统目前正因为给一位最近在尼日尔执行任务时牺牲的陆军军士的遗孀打慰问电话而陷入一场争论。
69岁的的加里.罗斯因为在1970年11月作为特种兵前往老挝丛林执行“顺风行动”的秘密使命中表现出的非凡勇敢而获得荣誉勋章。
表彰文书说，在四天的战斗中，罗斯没有一刻停下来吃东西或睡觉，多次冲入敌人的炮火下，抢救和撤退了六七十人，被弹片打伤后仍然继续行动。
川普总统在颁奖仪式上说：“你赢得了整个美国对你永远的感谢。你蔑视共产主义的邪恶，你捍卫了我们的旗帜，你向全世界展示了美国军队坚不可摧的决心。”
罗斯因为他的英勇表现当年就曾获得了杰出服役十字勋章。一些人认为，他之所以没有获得荣誉勋章是因为在老挝的行动直到多年之后才解密。
国会专门通过立法，使他终于可以在超过原定的5年期限之后获得荣誉勋章。
罗斯在颁奖仪式后说，这个勋章是授予他所在的整个部队，以及所有在东南亚牺牲的特种兵。