President Trump is set to award the Medal of Honor to Major James Capers, Jr., U.S. Marine Corps (Retired), Colonel John W. Ripley, U.S. Marine Corps (Posthumous), and Major Nicholas Dockery, U.S. Army (Retired).
Capers will receive the honor for his “acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty as a Team Leader” during the Vietnam War,” a White House release says. “He successfully directed fire onto an enemy base camp, thwarting an impending attack on a nearby Marine battalion. On the final day, his patrol was ambushed by a claymore mine and came under a dense barrage of enemy fire, where he sustained multiple severe wounds. Ignoring his injuries and extreme blood loss, he continued to lead his team, coordinate supporting fire, and direct their movement to an extraction site,” the release explains.
Ripley will receive the honor for playing a “pivotal role in halting a major North Vietnamese mechanized assault.”
Dockery’s medal will be awarded for his 2012 action against the Taliban in Afghanistan. “Over the course of four hours, he fought and maintained contact with the enemy in extremely restricted urban terrain, personally risking his life on numerous occasions to protect and evacuate three wounded members of his platoon,” the White House said. “After consolidation and reorganization, he directed rotary wing aircraft in the defense against subsequent enemy counter-attacks from an exposed rooftop while his unit evacuated the wounded soldiers.”
President Trump previously awarded three soldiers with the Congressional Medal of Honor, two of whom received the award posthumously, in March.
