At 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to its third recipient since the beginning of the War in Afghanistan.
Staff Sgt. Robert Miller received the award posthumously for displaying “conspicuous gallantry” on the night of January 25, 2008. Only 24 years old at the time, Miller was killed by Taliban insurgents when his patrol group came under fire.
Survivors of the fight said that Miller continued to advance while firing on the insurgents, throwing grenades, and acting as a decoy so the rest of his team could escape. Moreover, while displaying this heroic valor, Miller had already been wounded in the chest twice. His efforts saved the lives of more than 20 of his teammates.
“He displayed immeasurable courage and uncommon valor — eventually sacrificing his own life to save the lives of his teammates,” said a White House statement.
According to the official citation, “Nonetheless, with total disregard for his own safety, he [Miller] called for his men to quickly move back to covered positions as he charged the enemy over exposed ground and under overwhelming enemy fire in order to provide protective fire for his team.”
It continues: “While maneuvering to engage the enemy, Staff Sergeant Miller was shot in his upper torso. Ignoring the wound, he continued to push the fight, moving to draw fired from over one hundred enemy fighters upon himself…After killing 10 insurgents, wounding dozens more, and repeatedly exposing himself to wither enemy fire while moving from position to position, Miller was mortally wounded by enemy fire.”
The award comes the day before the nine-year anniversary of the U.S.’s War in Afghanistan. After overthrowing the Taliban in 2001 with relative ease and no American casualties, U.S. troops number just under 95,000 – the peak of a surge Obama authorized last December.
That number, however, will begin to decline in the summer of 2011, according to Obama’s plan for troop withdrawal.
The two other recipients of the Medal of Honor from the War in Afghanistan are Lt. Michael Murphy and SFC Jared Monti, both of whom were recognized posthumously. Murphy, the first to receive the award from the War on Terror, was recognized by President Bush on October 22, 2007. He was also the first member of the Navy to get the honor since the Vietnam War.
Monti was recognized on September 17, 2009, for being killed in action while trying to rescue a wounded fellow soldier.
Since its creation in 1862, the Medal of Honor has been awarded 3,400 times and is the military’s highest honor.