Iraq Veteran David Bellavia to receive Medal of Honor

update:Medal of Honor recipient calls military honor life-changing

Associated Press

June 11, 2019

CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — Army Staff Sgt. David Bellavia won’t officially receive his Medal of Honor from President Donald Trump for another two weeks but already, he says, everything’s changed.

The radio talk show host and one-time Republican congressional candidate says his focus now isn't his own opinions but the fellow Iraq veterans he represents, as well as families of soldiers who've lost their lives.

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15 years after Fallujah, Bellavia destined for Medal of Honor and White House ceremony

Buffalo News
By Robert J. McCarthy
Published June 8, 2019

David Bellavia will travel from his Albion home to the White House sometime late this month, where President Trump is scheduled to drape around the Army veteran’s neck a gold medallion suspended by a blue ribbon — the Medal of Honor.

David Bellavia ran for Congress in 2012. (John Hickey/News file photo)

But his journey really began on Nov. 10, 2004, in the dusty streets of Fallujah, Iraq. That’s where the Army staff sergeant, on his 29th birthday, found himself in deadly hand-to-hand combat with some of the enemy’s toughest fighters.

In the end, five of them died. He prevailed.

Now a nation will say thank you.

Veterans’ advocate, author, former congressional candidate and current talk radio co-host, Bellavia will become the 3,469th American awarded the nation’s highest military decoration — and the first living recipient from the War in Iraq.
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Iraq Veteran David Bellavia Honors Vietnam Veterans