{"id":68191,"date":"2021-05-21T15:26:57","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T20:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=68191"},"modified":"2021-05-21T15:26:57","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T20:26:57","slug":"68191","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=68191","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.military.com\/daily-news\/2021\/05\/21\/honor-long-overdue-after-70-years-ranger-legend-ralph-puckett-receives-medal-of-honor.html\">An Honor Long Overdue:&#8217; After 70 Years, Ranger Legend Ralph Puckett Receives Medal of Honor<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images01.military.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/full\/public\/2021-05\/newscredralphpucketreceivesmedalofhonor1800.jpeg.jpg?itok=rxsmOa7Z\" alt=\"President Biden presents Medal of Honor to retired Col. Ralph Puckett.\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"field field--image field--label-hidden\"><picture><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Then-1st Lt. Ralph Puckett Jr. led fellow Army Rangers across frozen terrain under enemy fire to seize and defend Hill 205 in Unsan, North Korea. He received the Medal of Honor on May 21, 2021, or going above and beyond the call of duty as the Eighth Army Ranger Company\u2019s commanding officer during a multiday operation that started on Nov. 25, 1950. (Courtesy photo via the U.S. Army)\" src=\"https:\/\/images03.military.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/full\/public\/2021-05\/puckett-helme-1800.gif.jpg?itok=GnT1laDG\" alt=\"ralph puckett army ranger medal of honor\" \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The\u00a0President of the United States\u00a0in the name of\u00a0The Congress\u00a0takes pleasure in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR to<\/p>\n<p><center><b>COLONEL RALPH PUCKETT JR.<\/b><br \/>\nUNITED STATES ARMY (RANGER)<\/p>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">for service as set forth in the following CITATION:<\/p>\n<dl>\n<dd>for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy of the United Nations while serving as Commanding Officer of the 8th Ranger Company, 8213th Army Unit, 8th U.S. Army. First Lieutenant Puckett distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action against enemy aggressor forces near Unsan, Korea, on 25 and 26 November 1950.<\/dd>\n<dd>With complete disregard for his personal safety, First Lieutenant Puckett led his company across eight hundred yards of open terrain under heavy enemy small-arms fire and captured the company&#8217;s objective. During this operation he deliberately exposed himself to enemy machine-gun fire to enable his men to spot locations of the machine guns.<\/dd>\n<dd>After capturing the objective, he directed preparation of defensive positions against an expected enemy counterattack. At 2200 hours on 25 November 1950, while directing the defense of his position against a heavy counterattack, he was wounded in the fight shoulder. Refusing evacuation, he continued to direct his company through four more counterattacks by a numerically superior force who advanced to within grenade range before being driven back.<\/dd>\n<dd>During these attacks, he left the safety of his foxhole in order to observe movements of the enemy and to direct artillery fire. In so doing, he repeatedly exposed himself to heavy small-arms and mortar fire. In the sixth counterattack, at 0300 hours on 26 November 1950, he was wounded again, so seriously that he was unable to move. Detecting that his company was about to be overrun and forced to withdraw, he ordered his men to leave him behind so as not to endanger their withdrawal. Despite his protests, he was dragged from the hill to a position of safety.<\/dd>\n<dd>First Lieutenant Puckett&#8217;s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.<sup id=\"cite_ref-\" class=\"reference\"><\/sup><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Honor Long Overdue:&#8217; After 70 Years, Ranger Legend Ralph Puckett Receives Medal of Honor &nbsp; The\u00a0President of the United States\u00a0in the name of\u00a0The Congress\u00a0takes pleasure in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR to COLONEL RALPH PUCKETT JR. UNITED STATES ARMY (RANGER) for service as set forth in the following CITATION: for extraordinary heroism in connection &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=68191\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-heroism","category-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68191"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68192,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68191\/revisions\/68192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}