War Secretary Pete Hegseth presented three retired Marines with upgraded awards for valor during a Pentagon ceremony. The upgrade honors the Marines’ actions following the August 26, 2021, attack in Kabul, Afghanistan.
hree Marines embody a timeless truth written in the book of Proverbs: ‘The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.’ On that chaotic day, you men were as bold as lions,” Hegseth said. “When the wicked sought to sow terror, these men stood as lions at the gate — bold in their purpose, fierce in their resolve and unbreakable in their courage.”
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, who also leads the Afghanistan Special Review Panel, said, “The awards being pinned on your chest today represent the unvarnished truth of your valor; they are permanent testament to the fact that when America asks for volunteers to step into a nightmare, you all went with zero hesitation.”
The Pentagon shared that it would upgrade the valor awards in April.
The valor awards come as Parnell announced on Wednesday that his panel discovered ” highly relevant classified documents, material that should have been disclosed, stashed, and hidden away in safes where they would not be found. And after the team reviewed these documents, it became clear why someone tried to hide them.” He expressed that his team is “following the evidence to wherever it leads and to whoever it touches, we’re not accepting incomplete or comfortable answers.”
“The deeper we look, the more there is to look at,” he said. “We are finding things that we did not expect.”
