Posthumous Medal of Honor Awarded To Leslie Sabo for Actions In Cambodia

Jonn wrote about the announcement of this award back in April, but I just wanted to highlight this hero once again who was awarded the Medal of Honor yesterday, albeit over 40 years late due to the loss of his paperwork.

From Military Times:

Spc. Leslie H. Sabo Jr. of Elwood City, Pa., was serving with U.S. forces near the village of Se San in eastern Cambodia in May of 1970 when his unit was ambushed and nearly overrun by North Vietnamese forces.

Comrades testified that the rifleman charged up from the rear, grabbed an enemy grenade and tossed it away, using his body to shield a fellow soldier. And shrugging off his own injuries, Sabo advanced on an enemy bunker that had poured fire onto the U.S. troops — and then, pulled the pin on his own grenade.

“It’s said he held that grenade and didn’t throw it until the last possible moment, knowing it would take his own life but knowing he could silence that bunker,” Obama recounted. “And he did. He saved his comrades, who meant more to him than life.”

There’s more info and video at the link.

Category: Historical, Military issues