President Barack Obama will award former Army Sgt. Kyle J. White the Medal of Honor today at the White House. Home Post will live stream the ceremony, which begins at 3:00 PM EDT.
White will become only the seventh living service member from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to receive the Medal of Honor.
White's courageous actions in combat at Nuristan Province, Afghanistan on Nov. 9, 2007 earned him the nation's highest military award, according to the Army:
White will receive the Medal of Honor for his disregard of his own life while trying to save the lives of a Marine and two fellow Soldiers after his team of 14 U.S. Soldiers and squad of Afghan National Army soldiers were set up and ambushed by a much larger and more heavily armed Taliban force, who engaged in a three-prong attack from elevated ground.
White told WSOC-TV in Charlotte, N.C., he wears a bracelet engraved with the names of the six men who died that day in November:
“I feel that this opportunity to get those names who gave their lives -- give them a chance for their names to be heard and their voices to be heard because I'm still here and they're not.”
He said receiving the Medal of Honor for what he considers the worst day of his life is bittersweet:
“It’s something I think about it multiple times a day. It's just something burned into your brain. You never forget.”
White now works as an investment analyst in Charlotte, N.C., having left the army in 2011.
