Medal of Honor awarded to US army captain for tackling a suicide bomber

World Today

Barack Obama, Florent GrobergPresident Barack Obama bestows the Medal of Honor to Florent Groberg during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Barack Obama said Thursday that Florent Groberg, a young French-born Retired U.S. Army captain who is the newest Medal of Honor recipient, had the instincts and the courage to tackle a suicide bomber in Afghanistan during a moment of selfless bravery, saving the lives of many comrades.

Four people were still killed, and Groberg suffered a leg injury so severe that he needed 33 surgeries to save it.

But Obama said what helped make Groberg a “great runner” during his student days at the University of Maryland also made him a “great soldier.”

Groberg is the 10th living service member from actions in Iraq or Afghanistan to be awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest honor for battlefield bravery.

“This medal is the greatest honor you could ever receive, and I am blessed and just grateful to have been given the opportunity to serve my country. But this medal belongs to the true heroes – Command Sergeant Griffin, Major Gray, Major Kennedy, Ragaei Abdelfattah – who made the ultimate sacrifice and didn’t come home. It also belongs to their families, true heroes who live with that day every day missing one of the members of their families,” Groberg said. It was raining, and an umbrella was held over him.

“So I’m honored, overwhelmed, but I hope to become the right carrier for them and better myself as a human being for the rest of my life.”

Obama said that when Groberg came to in the hospital after the explosion in August 2012, he thought was in Germany and that the lead singer from the heavy metal band Korn was at his bedside and talking to him.

“Flo thought, ‘What’s going on? Am I hallucinating?” Obama said, telling the story to an audience of family, friends, and others gathered for the White House medal ceremony. “Today, Flo, I want to assure you you are not hallucinating. You are actually in the White House.”

“Those cameras are on. I am not the lead singer from Korn,” Obama joked.

Barack Obama, Florent Groberg

President Barack Obama and Florent Grobert bow their heads during a ceremony where the president bestowed the nation’s highest military honor to Groberg, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Groberg, now 32 and medically retired from the Army, is credited with saving many lives by tackling the suicide bomber. Three service members and a foreign service officer were killed when the bomber’s vest exploded.

Born in Poissy, France, Groberg became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2001, the same year he graduated from high school in Maryland. He also competed in track and cross country at the University of Maryland before entering the Army in 2008.

Groberg deployed to Afghanistan’s Kunar Province in November 2009 and again in February 2012. He was helping lead an escort for a meeting with an Afghan provincial governor when his unit encountered the bomber. Groberg, with assistance from another soldier in the security detail, Sgt. Andrew Mahoney, tackled him to the ground where the bomber’s vest detonated.

Groberg spent nearly three years recovering at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald spoke about Groberg during a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. He said Groberg is emblematic of the sacrifices made by every generation of veterans.

“Captain Groberg acted in a manner that saved the lives of many of his comrades. Tragically, he could not save them all,” McDonald said. “When he was informed last month that he would receive the Medal of Honor, he said, and I quote, ‘This medal belongs to them. It’s my mission to tell everyone thank you for recognizing me, but this does not belong to me. It belongs to them. That’s how I’m coping with it mentally.'”