Seven soldiers—two who fought in Vietnam and five in Korea—were awarded the Medal of Honor on Jan. 3 during a ceremony at the White House. 

Only former Pfc. Kenneth David, who was recognized for his heroic actions on May 7, 1970, in Vietnam, received the award in person from President Joe Biden. The other soldiers were honored posthumously. 

They were Capt. Hugh Nelson Jr., who was a Huey pilot in Vietnam, and Korea War heroes Pfc. Wataru Nakamura, then-1st Lt. Richard Cavazos, who is the namesake of Fort Cavazos, Texas, Pfc. Charles Johnson, Cpl. Fred McGee and Pvt. Bruno Orig. 

These seven men are heroes, Biden said during the ceremony. “That’s not hyperbole,” he said. “These are genuine, to-the-core heroes … who all went above and beyond the call of duty. Heroes who all deserve our nation’s highest and oldest military recognition.” 

Biden said he was honored to learn about these soldiers’ stories, “Americans who’ve not only fought for our nation but embody the very best our nation has to offer.” 

“Today we award these individuals the Medal of Honor, but we can’t stop here,” he said. “As a nation, it’s up to us to give this medal meaning, to keep fighting for one another, for each other, to keep defending everything these heroes fought for and many of them died for.” 

Here is a look at each Medal of Honor recipients’ story. 

Pfc. Kenneth David 

In May 1970, David was a radio-telephone operator with Company D, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, when his platoon was dropped off near Fire Support Base Maureen in Vietnam’s Thua Thien Province. 

The base had been abandoned, and just two days after arriving, on May 7, the soldiers were overrun in an intense attack from a large enemy force. “It was pitch black at night,” David recounted. He had just finished checking in with his team, and “they all came back to me, two clicks, everything was OK,” David said. “Then explosions started going off. We got overrun.” 

The enemy’s ferocious attack mortally wounded the platoon leader and caused numerous other casualties, according to the Army. David immediately moved toward the defensive perimeter and unleashed a barrage of automatic weapons fire on the enemy. “Each time the enemy attempted to concentrate its fire on the wounded inside the perimeter, David jumped from his position and yelled to draw enemy fire away from his injured comrades and back to himself,” according to the Army.  

Despite being wounded and running low on ammunition, David continued to fight, throwing hand grenades at the attacking enemy fighters. Refusing medical aid, David kept drawing enemy fire away from his fellow soldiers until the medevac helicopters could fly them to safety. “We did what we had to do,” David said. “We did our duty.” 

David received the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second-highest award for valor, for his actions that night. But for the past 17 years, Herm Breuer, former director of the Trumbull County Veterans Service Commission in Ohio who learned about David’s story, worked to have the award upgraded. “Mr. Herm Breuer never gave up on me, and that’s why I’m here today,” David said. 

While he is honored to receive the Medal of Honor, David said he carries with him the seven soldiers who died in that fight. “That’s my way of coping with my stress. I always talk about my friends,” he said. “I sometimes call them kids. We were all kids then. We knew the way they walked, we knew the way they talked, their heartbeat. We would do anything for each other in any situation.” 

Receiving the Medal of Honor has “brought up a lot of cobwebs over 54 years for me,” David said, but he hopes it will enable him to do even more to support his fellow veterans. 

“That is my duty,” he said. “I will never forget my friends and my veterans in my county up here. That’s my goal for the rest of my life now.” 

Capt. Hugh Nelson Jr. 

On June 5, 1966, near Moc Hoa, Vietnam, Nelson was the acting aircraft commander of a UH-1 Huey helicopter with the 114th Aviation Company (Airmobile Light). Nelson and three crewmates were on a search-and-destroy reconnaissance mission when their Huey was hit by enemy fire. 

The crew was able to crash-land the helicopter, but the impact caused them all to lose consciousness. When Nelson came to, he found his dazed and wounded crew chief trapped inside. After pulling him out, Nelson went back to help the door gunner, who was strapped inside and unable to move, according to the Army. 

As Nelson worked to free him, enemy fighters kept firing on the aircraft, some from as close as 30 feet away. “Upon removing the wounded door gunner from the aircraft, he forced the specialist to the ground and, without regard for his own life, used his body as a shield to cover his comrade from the intense enemy fire,” according to the Army.  

Nelson, who was hit several times, died from his wounds. His sacrifice allowed his wounded comrade to use a smoke grenade to signal supporting aircraft for help, according to the Army. 

Debra “Debbie” McKnight and Hugh “Tripp” Nelson III were 5 and 1, respectively, when their father was killed in action. “We are very, very grateful and appreciative of this honor,” McKnight said. 

She credited Ted Curtis, who, like her father, graduated from The Citadel, for pursuing a medal upgrade for more than six years. As Curtis, who learned about Hugh Nelson’s actions while going through The Citadel’s archives, gathered more information for the medal upgrade effort, McKnight and Tripp Nelson were able to learn more about their father. “We never knew the whole story until Ted did this research, which is why we’re so grateful he never gave up,” McKnight said. 

Having their father receive the Medal of Honor is “very, very special,” Tripp Nelson said. “He gave his life for another in battle, and we always knew the story, so we’ve been proud of him our whole lives, and it’s good that others know the story, and I know our mother would be very pleased that everyone else is knowing it now.”  

Pfc. Wataru Nakamura 

On May 18, 1951, near P’ungch’on-ni, Korea, Nakamura, of 3rd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, volunteered to check and repair a communications line between his platoon and the command post. 

Around daybreak, as he made his way along the line, he came under fire from an enemy force that had surrounded friendly positions and was threatening to break defense lines. Nakamura immediately rushed the enemy with a fixed bayonet and single-handedly destroyed a hostile machine gun nest, driving the enemy from several bunkers they had captured. 

His ammunition depleted, Nakamura withdrew under intense enemy fire, met an ammunition party ascending the hill, rearmed himself and returned to the fight. 

In a fierce charge, he killed three enemy fighters in one bunker and killed and seriously wounded another in the last enemy-held bunker. Continuing to press the attack, he was mortally wounded by an enemy grenade. 

For his heroic actions, Nakamura was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, an award that has now been upgraded to the Medal of Honor.  

A native of Los Angeles, Nakamura enlisted in the Army on April 22, 1944, after spending part of his youth at the Rowher Relocation Camp in Arkansas where Japanese Americans were incarcerated after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, his nephew, Gary Takashima, told reporters.  

“As soon as he could, he enlisted in the Army, like many Japanese American men at the time, to show his loyalty and sense of duty to his country,” Takashima said, adding that his uncle fought in Europe in World War II and, upon his return, became a member of the U.S. Army Reserve from which he volunteered for the Korean War. 

1st Lt. Richard Cavazos 

While serving as commander of the 3rd Infantry Division’s Company E, 2nd Battalion, 65th Infantry Regiment, near Sagimak, Korea, Cavazos led his soldiers on a night raid to destroy enemy fighters and their entrenched outpost. 

During that June 14, 1953, mission, Cavazos directed heavy fire on enemy positions, withdrawing his men under heavy enemy mortar and artillery strikes so they could regroup and reengage. He led his soldiers twice more through enemy fire, destroying vital enemy fortifications and personnel. 

Cavazos inspired his soldiers to keep fighting despite the tough conditions, and when ordered to withdraw his company, Cavazos complied but remained alone to search for missing men. While exposed to enemy fire, he located five casualties and evacuated them, one by one, to a nearby hill where they could be safely recovered. 

He would make four more trips to the battlefield, searching for casualties and evacuating scattered groups of men who had become separated or confused. He allowed his own combat wounds to be treated on the morning of June 15 only when he was satisfied that the battlefield was cleared. 

His actions earned him a Distinguished Service Cross, which has now been upgraded to a Medal of Honor. 

“I’m sure my father would assert that he was very much a humble, ordinary man who was a husband, a father and a proud American,” Tommy Cavazos said.  “He was a man of deep faith who loved his country, loved his family and loved his soldiers, and it was that love, that selfless love, of which there is no greater love, that drove him up the hill that night in 1953 to collect the men in his company and get them to safety.” 

A native of Kingsville, Texas, Cavazos was commissioned as an infantry officer in June 1951 and became the first Hispanic brigadier general in 1976. He was promoted to four-star general in 1982. He died Oct. 29, 2017, at age 88. 

Cavazos also received the Distinguished Service Cross for heroic actions in Vietnam. On May 9, 2023, Fort Hood, Texas, was renamed Fort Cavazos. 

Pfc. Charles Johnson 

Johnson, of Millbrook, New York, was a Browning automatic rifleman with Company B, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, when Chinese forces attacked his unit on June 11, 1953, during a massive nighttime assault. 

In the ensuing battle at Outpost Harry, a hill 60 miles northeast of Seoul, overwhelming numbers of Chinese troops assaulted the trenches and bunkers defended by Johnson and his squad. 

Wounded from hand grenade fragments and a direct artillery hit on his bunker, Johnson tended to the more seriously injured while the unit continued to come under fire. Johnson dragged a wounded soldier to a secure bunker, stopping intermittently to aid other injured soldiers and kill several enemy troops in hand-to-hand combat. 

Leaving the safety of the second bunker, Johnson searched for weapons and ammunition, then returned to rearm the others. Recognizing their dire situation, and with disregard for his personal safety, Johnson left the bunker and placed himself between the enemy and his wounded comrades, telling them he would hold off the enemy forces as best as he could. 

Johnson, who was killed in action on June 12, is credited with saving the lives of as many as 10 soldiers.  

His heroic actions earned him a Silver Star, which has now been upgraded to the Medal of Honor. 

Trey Mendez, Johnson’s nephew, said he never met his uncle but has met and spoken with some of the men he saved, including former Pvt. Don Dingee, a high school classmate of Johnson’s who happened to be in the same unit. 

“To me he’s a story passed down from his siblings, and it’s just so great to hear his story being told to the broader nation at large and hopefully inspire everyone the way it’s inspired in the family all these years,” Mendez said. 

Cpl. Fred McGee 

During an assault on fortified enemy positions near Tang-Wan-Ni, Korea, on June 16, 1952, McGee delivered a heavy volume of supporting fire despite being exposed to intense enemy machine-gun and mortar fire. 

Though forced to move his gun several times, he continued to provide covering fire to his platoon’s assault elements. When his squad leader and other members of his squad were wounded, McGee assumed command and moved the squad forward to a more exposed position to neutralize an enemy machine gun. When his machine gunner was mortally wounded, McGee again took over the gun.  

He then ordered his squad to withdraw and voluntarily remained behind to help evacuate the wounded and dead. Though wounded in the face, he exposed himself by standing straight up under intense enemy machine-gun and mortar fire and attempted to evacuate the body of the company runner.  

Forced to abandon the body, he aided a wounded soldier and moved him to safety through a huge volume of enemy mortar and artillery fire. 

A native of Steubenville, Ohio, McGee enlisted in the Army on May 22, 1951, and was assigned to the 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. For his heroic actions in Korea, McGee was awarded a Silver Star, an award that has now been upgraded to the Medal of Honor. 

“We are grateful to the nation for joining us in resurrecting the truth and courage of Cpl. Fred B.  McGee,” his daughter, Victoria Secrest, said, pointing out that his unit’s motto was “Truth and Courage.”  

“He exemplified that on Hill 528, but he’s exemplified that throughout his life,” Secrest said. 

McGee died on Jan. 3, 2020, at the age of 90. 

Pvt. Bruno Orig 

On Feb. 15, 1951, Orig was serving with Company G, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, near Chipyong-ni, Korea. 

Returning from a wire-laying mission, Orig saw several of his fellow soldiers wounded during a fierce enemy attack and went to them, remaining in an exposed position as he rendered aid. With help from several soldiers from the company command post, Orig began removing the wounded to safety. 

On one of these trips, Orig noticed that all except one man of a machine-gun crew had been wounded. Without hesitation, he volunteered to man the weapon. Remaining in this position, Orig placed effective fire on the enemy, allowing a friendly platoon to withdraw without a single casualty. Orig continued to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy until the company positions were overrun. 

Later that day, when the lost ground was recaptured, Orig was found dead beside his weapon, and the area in front of his gun was littered with several dead enemy soldiers. 

For his heroic actions, he was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross, an award that has now been upgraded to the Medal of Honor. 

A native of Hawaii, Orig enlisted on Aug. 9, 1950.  

“It is an honor for me to be here today to know that my brother is being recognized for what he did during the war,” his sister, Loretta Orig, said.