🇺🇸 President Trump awarded the Medal of Honor today to three American heroes!!!!
• Maj. James Capers Jr. (USMC, Ret.) – Vietnam
• Col. John W. Ripley (USMC, Posthumous) – Vietnam
• Maj. Nicholas Dockery (USA, Ret.) – Afghanistan
These legends embody courage and sacrifice. God bless our troops and America! 🙏🏻🔥🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸#MedalOfHonor
@USMC@USNavy I've always said the Corpsman are some of the best and bad ass men I've ever meet. Cant's say enough about them. SEMPER FI AND THANK YOU!!!!
Corpsman Up!
Today, we celebrate and recognize the @USNavy Corpsmen who have stood alongside our #Marines for 128 years.
Since June 16, 1898, Navy Corpsmen have embodied the spirit of #SemperFidelis. From naval hospitals to the battlefield, they remain always faithful, treating our wounded and keeping Marines in the fight.
To the #Corpsmen in our ranks, we thank you for your unwavering dedication to duty and to our Marines.
Semper Fidelis.
✍️ (U.S. Marine Corps graphic by Lance Cpl. Matthew Morales)
📷 (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Armando Elizalde)
#Corpsman #Navy #BlueGreenTeam
Vietnam War Recon Marine, James Capers Jr, to receive Medal of Honor
Bloody and under fire in Vietnam, he led his men to safety 60 years ago. On Thursday, he will receive the Medal of Honor.
Nearly 60 years after he led his reconnaissance team through a harrowing ambush in South Vietnam — ignoring his numerous serious wounds — retired Maj. James Capers Jr. will finally be honored with the U.S. military’s highest award for valor on Thursday.
President Donald Trump will award Capers the Medal of Honor at Thursday’s ceremony, a White House official confirmed to Task & Purpose.
Capers’ heroism during an April 1967 ambush in South Vietnam is legendary. He led a nine-man team from 3rd Force Reconnaissance Company to a helicopter landing zone despite losing a significant amount of blood from numerous injuries, including bullet and shrapnel wounds and a broken leg.
He also refused to board the helicopter unless the aircraft’s crew also took the body of the team’s military working dog. When the helicopter struggled to take off, Capers twice tried to get out so that the aircraft would be light enough to fly.
“It was an attempt to save my troops,” Capers told Task & Purpose on Monday. “It wasn’t heroism. It might have looked that way, but it wasn’t about Jim Capers. It was about the 10 men that I had and the dog’s body that I wanted to get home.”
In an interview prior to his Medal of Honor ceremony, Capers said that his team was facing a desperate situation as the helicopter struggled to get airborne. The recon team had fought for four days and nights. So many of them were wounded that the floor of the helicopter was covered with blood. The co-pilot had also been shot.
They needed to get out of there to survive, and Capers was willing to be left behind so the others could escape. But another service member grabbed him by his harness to pull him back into the helicopter.
Reflecting on that moment, Capers said he doesn’t believe he did anything extraordinary under the circumstances.
“When you’re in command, you look after your troops,” Capers said. “When the helicopter was too heavy with the man load, I did what any commander would do: lighten the load.”
@JRM58506966@JohnBarron51582 You're the Best Gunny!!! Damn i wish we were younger. End these fucking muslims!!!! America Is Christian!!! SEMPER FI. Lone live the Corps.