WASHINGTON — Congress gave one in all its highest ultimate tributes on Monday — a mendacity in honor ceremony on the Capitol — to Ralph Puckett Jr., who led an outnumbered firm in battle throughout the Korean Battle and was the final surviving veteran of that conflict to obtain the Medal of Honor.
Puckett, who retired as an Army colonel, died earlier this month on the age of 97 at his dwelling in Columbus, Georgia. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2021, the nation’s highest navy honor, seven many years after his actions throughout the wartime.
The mendacity in honor ceremony on the Capitol is reserved for the nation’s most distinguished personal residents. Solely seven others have obtained the respect, and the newest, in 2022, was Hershel W. “Woody” Williams, who was the final surviving Medal of Honor recipient from World Battle II. The ceremonies for each Williams and Puckett had been meant to additionally acknowledge the broader generations of veterans who are actually dwindling in numbers.
“Ralph Puckett wore our nation’s highest navy ornament. And within the hearts of generations of troopers to come back, the braveness and self-sacrifice that earned that honor will likely be this nice man’s everlasting legacy,” mentioned Senate Republican Chief Mitch McConnell.
He mentioned that Puckett led 50 Army Rangers by way of “a crucible of staggering odds” throughout a 1950 battle on a strategically essential hill close to Unsan during which they had been outnumbered 10-to-1. He “repeatedly risked his personal life to defend his place, rally his males, and get them organized to security with out him,” McConnell mentioned.
Through the battle, Puckett sprinted throughout an open space to attract fireplace in order that Rangers might spot and goal enemy machine-gunners. Although badly outnumbered, Puckett’s troops repelled a number of assaults from a Chinese language battalion of an estimated 500 troopers earlier than being overrun.
When two mortar rounds landed in his foxhole, Puckett suffered severe wounds to his ft, bottom and left arm. He ordered his males to depart him behind, however they refused.
“Many troopers within the Korean Battle paid the last word sacrifice,” mentioned Home Speaker Mike Johnson. “Seven thousand others stay unaccounted for. However a choose few, just like the colonel, went above and past the decision of responsibility.”
Eight different Medal of Honor recipients attended the Capitol ceremony and gave ultimate salutes to Puckett.
Born in Tifton, Georgia, on Dec. 8, 1926, Puckett graduated from america Navy Academy at West Level and obtained his fee as an infantry officer in 1949. He volunteered for the eighth Army Ranger Firm, and regardless of his inexperience, Puckett was chosen because the unit’s commander. He had lower than six weeks to coach his troopers earlier than they joined the battle.
When Puckett took command, McConnell mentioned, he did so “with humility and with clear eyes concerning the horrors of conflict.” He additionally prayed: “Expensive God, don’t let me get a bunch of fine guys killed.”
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Related Press author Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed.
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