“Senior Chief Edward Byers Jr.is such a man”, Obama said.
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Defense Department officials said Byers is the first living SEAL to receive the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War.
The president noted that several of Byers’ peers and family were present for the presentation – and he noted that Byers’ mother, Peggy, had one question about the event honoring her son at the White House today: “Do you think I can come?”
The rescue of Dilip Joseph, an American medical doctor, took place in eastern Afghanistan and also resulted in the death of a member of the Navy’s Special Warfare Development Group, more commonly known as SEAL Team Six.
Byers spotted another enemy fighter and was able to pin him to the wall while still covering the hostage with his body.
Chief Special Warfare Officer Edward Byers lead a SEAL team on a unsafe hostage rescue mission in Afghanistan.
“This award surrounds a specific mission that we did, and in that mission [Special Warfare Operator 1st Class (SEAL)] Nic Checque was ultimately killed”, Byers said in a video released Friday by the Navy.
“It wasn’t until he called and I got to speak to him that, and he said, ‘Congratulations”. “Nic embodied the essence of what it is to be an American hero”. But Byers continued inside, became involved in hand-to-hand combat with an armed guard and then shielded the American hostage from gunfire, according to the Navy.
The U.S. Navy SEAL is a Toledo Ohio native graduating from Otsego High School in 1997, and enlisted the next year. “He is unquestionably deserving of the Medal of Honor”.
Byers has been assigned to various SEAL teams, and completed eight overseas deployments with seven combat tours.
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24-Hour News 8 will live stream the ceremony at 11 a.m. Check back inside this link to watch.
