Biden will give the Medal of Honor to a Korean War hero during Moon’s visit.
Col. Ralph Puckett Jr., a retired Army Ranger, visiting Fort Benning, Ga., in April during the 2021 David E. Grange Jr. Best Ranger competition.Credit.Sgt. Henry Villarama/U.S. Army
May 21, 2021, 10:37 a.m. ET
President Biden will award a Korean War hero, Ralph Puckett Jr., the Medal of Honor on Friday, seven decades after he led 51 Rangers in fighting off successive waves of enemy counterattacks after he was gravely wounded by a hand grenade.
Colonel Puckett, 94, initially received a Distinguished Service Cross for his command of the Eighth U.S. Army Ranger Company in November 1950. But that citation was upgraded after a campaign by a retired Army officer who believed the actions by the young lieutenant from Georgia warranted the nation’s highest military honor.
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Biden awards Medal of Honor to Korean War veteran Ralph Puckett
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Ranger Legend Colonel Ralph Puckett to Receive Medal of Honor
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Colonel Ralph Puckett (U.S. Army)
U.S. Army Colonel Ralph Puckett, Jr., a legend in the Ranger Regiment will be awarded the Medal of Honor at the White House on Friday for his own “conspicuous gallantry” during the Korean War. South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who had planned an official state visit to President Biden, will also attend the ceremony.
Puckett, now 94, has served his country and the Regiment for more than 70 years.
He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy when he was 23 and was assigned to an Infantry company in Japan. Yet, Puckett volunteered for the Ranger Company. However, he was told that there were no more lieutenant positions in the 8th Army Ranger Company. He was nonplussed. Puckett said that he would “take a squad leader’s or rifleman’s job,” taking a rank bust several grades lower than a lieutenant’s. Colonel McGee, who was in charge of forming the Ranger company,