President Joe Biden on Thursday awarded the Medal of Honor — the country’s highest military award for valor — to three U.S. soldiers for their conspicuous gallantry in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The ceremony is Biden's second as President of the United States. In May, Biden presented the honor to retired Army Col. Ralph Puckett, Jr., 95, “for conspicuous gallantry during the Korean War." Biden was joined at the ceremony by South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in, the first foreign leader to do so.

“Today, we honor three outstanding soldiers, whose actions embody the highest ideals of selfless service,” Biden said from the East Room of the White House on Thursday. “We also remember the high price military members and their families are willing to pay on behalf of our nation.”

U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Alwyn C. Cashe, who died on Oct. 17, 2005 after saving his men from a burning vehicle in Iraq, became the first Black servicemember to receive the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War, according to the White House.

Cashe, who was born in Oviedo, Florida, a city just outside of Orlando, received the honor posthumously “for his acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty,” the White House said in a release. 

While on a nighttime patrol in October of 2005, the vehicle Cashe was commanding was attacked by insurgents — an improvised explosive device disabled the vehicle and engulfed it in flames. Despite suffering severe second and third degree burns, Cashe aided his fellow troops in escaping the burning vehicle, and refused medical evacuation until the other wounded soldiers were evacuated — at the cost of his own life.

“Alwyn Cashe was a soldier’s soldier. A warrior who literally walked through fire for his troops,” Biden said at Thursday’s afternoon ceremony. “He was a hero. He was a beloved son and brother, a proud husband and a father of three children.”

Cashe previously deployed in 1991 in the Gulf War and also served in Korea and Germany before being deployed to Iraq. He also served two and a half years as a Drill Sergeant at Fort Benning, Georgia.

His widow, Tamara Cashe, accepted the award on his behalf during the White House ceremony Thursday.

“I’ve always been proud of my baby brother but to say I was prouder doesn’t even begin to tell you how I really felt,” Kasinel Cashe White, an older sister of Cashe, told Spectrum News in 2020, adding: “He earned this.”

“Running into a burning vehicle while covered in gasoline not once, not twice, but three times himself on fire while pulling his soldiers to safety is legendary, it’s heroic,” Florida Rep. Michael Waltz, who introduced a bill pushing for Cashe to receive the award, said to Spectrum News last year. “I can’t think of anything that more deserves to receive the Medal of Honor.”

Sergeant First Class Christopher A. Celiz also received the honor posthumously for his service in Afghanistan — according to the U.S. Army, he used his body to shield his team, as well as a wounded ally, from enemy gunfire in Paktia Province, Afghanistan in July of 2018.

“When a large enemy force attacked, Sergeant First Class Celiz voluntarily exposed himself to intense enemy machine gun and small arms fire to retrieve and employ a heavy weapon system, thereby allowing U.S. and partnered forces to regain the initiative, maneuver to a secure location and begin treatment of a critically wounded partnered force member,” the White House said in a release. 

Biden on Thursday described how Celiz “knowingly and willingly” put himself in harm’s way for his fellow servicemembers, saying he “used his body as a shield for the aircraft and his crew against the heavy incoming fire.” 

“In the face of extreme danger, he placed the safety of his team and his crew above his own,” Biden continued, later adding: “His legacy lives on in the lives he saved, the teammates he mentored and the memories he made with his beloved wife, Katie, and especially in their precious daughter, Shannon.” 

Celiz, from Summerville, South Carolina, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2006, two years after graduating from high school. He was assigned to Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, and deployed to Afghanistan several times with his unit.

His widow, Katie Celiz, accepted the medal on his behalf at Thursday’s ceremony.

The third and final recipient – and the only of the three still living – at Thursday’s ceremony was Master Sergeant Earl D. Plumlee, who received the honor "for his acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty" when he engaged insurgents at a U.S. base near Ghazni, Afghanistan on Aug. 28, 2013.

Plumlee joined the Oklahoma Army National Guard in 1998, and following his high school graduation in 2000, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps, where he served until 2008. In 2009, he enlisted in the U.S. Army.

In Afghanistan, when insurgents blew a sixty-foot breach in the base’s perimeter wall and poured into the base, wearing Afghan National Army uniforms and suicide vests, Plumlee sprung into action. 

Along with five special operations members, Plumlee mounted two vehicles and raced to the detonation site. Plumlee engaged the insurgents — killing two of them, one with a well-placed grenade and the other by detonating the insurgent’s suicide vest using precision sniper fire, according to the White House.

“He left whatever cover the truck provided him and began to engage the invaders, outnumbered with no regard for his own safety, at times armed with only a pistol,” Biden said. “When a fellow soldier was severely wounded, Plumlee immediately ran to the soldier’s position, carried him to safety and administered tactical combat casualty care before returning to the fight.” 

Plumlee currently serves as a Senior Weapons Sergeant with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Special Forces Group at Fort Lewis, Washington. 

“No one will ever forget how you sprang into action […] when the enemy attacked our base,” Biden said to Plumlee on Thursday. “I'm grateful for your continued service and dedication to the country.”

Plumlee accepted the award from Biden himself at Thursday’s ceremony, shaking the president's hand after he placed the medal around Plumlee’s neck.