For decades, the comrades of Maj. James Capers Jr. and Col. John W. Ripley — two Marines who showed extraordinary heroism in the Vietnam War — have pushed for them to be awarded the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest decoration for combat valor.
And even though Maj. Nicholas Dockery of the Army displayed bravery above and beyond the call of duty in Afghanistan in 2012, he has had to wait more than a decade to receive the nation’s highest military award.
President Trump is set on Thursday to clasp the medal’s pale blue ribbon around the necks of Major Capers and Major Dockery at a White House ceremony, ending their long waits for recognition. Mr. Trump is also planning to present a cased medal to Colonel Ripley’s son. Colonel Ripley died in 2008.
Recommendations for awarding the Medal of Honor must be made within three years of the combat action. Those that come later, such as for the three recipients of the medals on Thursday, must be approved by congressional legislation. Bills authorizing the medals to Major Capers, Colonel Ripley and Major Dockery were signed into law earlier this year.
Of the three men, Major Capers has waited the longest for the recognition, which honors his actions from March 31 to April 3, 1967, near Phu Lac in South Vietnam as a second lieutenant in command of a Force Reconnaissance platoon.
Major Capers’ story was not well known until he was awarded the nation’s third-highest award for combat valor, the Silver Star, in 2010 — 43 years after the battle in which he was gravely wounded in an ambush and saved all of his Marines. Following a review, that Silver Star was recommended for upgrade to the Medal of Honor.
According to the Marine Corps, Major Capers was born to a family of sharecroppers and became the first Black enlisted Marine to receive a battlefield commission — a promotion from the enlisted ranks to the officer corps while in combat — during the Vietnam War. He was also the first Black officer to command a Marine reconnaissance company. In 2019, the service called him “one of the most decorated Marines in U.S. history.”
Major Capers retired from active duty in 1978 after 22 years of service.
By contrast, Colonel Ripley, a fellow Force Reconnaissance officer, enjoyed a measure of fame and esteem almost immediately after receiving the Navy Cross — the second-highest combat award in the Marine Corps — during his second tour in Vietnam in 1972, when he was a captain.
On April 2, 1972, during the Easter Offensive, Colonel Ripley was advising a South Vietnamese Marine battalion when a North Vietnamese division moved toward a critical river crossing at Dong Ha. According to his Navy Cross citation, he found 500 pounds of high explosives already positioned near the bridge, then swung underneath the structure to place those charges while taking enemy fire.
He detonated the charges, destroying the bridge, and was credited with delaying by months the North Vietnamese advance toward Saigon.
Numerous books were published about Colonel Ripley’s actions at Dong Ha in the years that followed. At the Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1962, a diorama of Colonel Ripley rigging the Dong Ha bridge with explosives has been on display for more than 30 years.
Colonel Ripley retired from active duty in 1992, then served as the president of Southern Virginia College and Hargrave Military Academy. He led the Marine Corps’ History and Museums Division from July 1999 until August 2005.
The final Medal of Honor set to be awarded on Thursday is for Major Dockery, who graduated from West Point in 2011. He joined the infantry, serving with 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment.
The action that Major Dockery will be recognized for came about a year and a half after he received his commission, as a second lieutenant leading a platoon in Kapisa Province, Afghanistan.
On Oct. 2, 2012, Major Dockery’s platoon was ambushed by Taliban fighters in an urban area, setting off a four-hour battle. During the fight, he maintained contact with the enemy and risked his life “on numerous occasions,” his award citation said, to protect and evacuate three wounded members of his platoon.
After reorganizing his troops, Lieutenant Dockery took to an exposed rooftop to direct helicopters to help his platoon’s defense against counterattacks and to evacuate his wounded soldiers.
For that action, Major Dockery received a Silver Star that was upgraded to the Medal of Honor.
He later qualified as a Green Beret, deploying to combat again with the 7th Special Forces Group. He received another Silver Star for action in Afghanistan in 2018.
According to the Army, Major Dockery retired from active service in May.
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