WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says a grateful nation honors the acts of valor by two Vietnam War soldiers who risked their lives to protect fellow troops.
Obama is bestowing the Medal of Honor on Army Command Sgt. Maj. Bennie G. Adkins and Army Spc. Donald P. Sloat, nearly half a century after they fought in Vietnam.
Adkins ran through enemy fire while rescuing injured comrades. He was injured but survived.
Sloat did not. He pulled an enemy grenade close to his body to protect fellow troops from the blast.
Congress granted an exemption to allow the soldiers to receive the medal so many years later. Obama says even the most extraordinary acts on the battlefield can get lost in the fog of war or the passage of time.