Trump awards Medal of Honor to Vietnam and Afghanistan war veterans: ‘Great men’

Capers helped rescue wounded men in 1967 after they were ambushed by Vietnamese fighters during a reconnaissance mission that went wrong. At one point, he sustained serious injuries, including a broken leg, but he pushed through the pain.

“After a shot of morphine, Jim asserted command of the firefight,” Trump said in recounting the mission. “He took over like nobody’s ever seen before.”

In 1972, Ripley single-handedly laid and detonated 500 pounds of explosives to destroy a key bridge that North Vietnamese forces would have crossed. The ordeal lasted five hours, with Ripley climbing the bridge’s steel beams himself. He prayed and then detonated the bridge, halting the enemy’s advance.

“John completed not one, not two, but five such trips,” Trump said, calling him a “very strong guy.”

Ripley’s award was awarded posthumously; he died in 2008. His family attended the ceremony in his place.

Dockery rescued wounded soldiers in 2012 when his platoon was surrounded by the Taliban. He also coordinated the rescue operation while calling in mortar support and using smoke grenades to signal enemy positions for U.S. gunships. Dockery left the area once all of his wounded comrades were taken to safety.

“You were the last man to depart the battlefield that day,” Trump told him, “and you left it a legend and a hero.”

TRUMP SAYS HIS POWER IS UNLIMITED AFTER IRAN WAR: ‘THERE ARE NO LIMITS’

At the ceremony, the president joked he once wanted a Medal of Honor of his own, even though he never served in the military.

“I wanted to give it to myself, but I was informed I couldn’t do it,” he said. “And I couldn’t find anything where I was actually worthy, so here we are.”