The day after Independence Day, President Joe Biden presented the Medal of Honor to four Vietnam War veterans on Tuesday in a White House ceremony.
Major John Duffy, 84, Specialist Five Dennis Fujii, and Specialist Five Dwight Birdwell, 74, all attended the event where the president presented them with their honors.
Additionally, Staff Sergeant Edward Kaneshiro, who died in combat at the age of 38, received it posthumously. Tuesday at the White House, Kaneshiro’s son John collected the medal in his honor.
Biden praised the recipients, saying that they “went far above and beyond the call of duty.”
The Medal of Honor is the most prestigious and highest U.S. government decoration for military service members.
All four medal recipients served in the Vietnam War.
‘Yesterday marked the 246th anniversary of this nation’s independence. 246 years of struggle and sacrifice to uphold the principles so dear to the character of our nation – liberty, democracy, God-given rights of every individual,’ Biden said in his remarks at the top of the ceremony.
‘It’s a journey that has never finished – and never will be fully finished,’ he said.
Hershel “Woody” Williams, the final survivor of World War II’s Medal of Honor recipients, passed away shortly after the ceremony. According to statements made on Sunday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Williams, who passed away on June 29 at the age of 98, will lay in state in the Capitol.
First Lady Jill Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, and other senior U.S. Military leaders attended the event on Tuesday.