President Joe Biden presented the nation's highest military honor, the Medal of Honor, to three soldiers on Dec. 16 at the White House.

Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe was killed in Iraq. He died of wounds from rescuing fellow soldiers from a burning Bradley Fighting Vehicle in Iraq in 2005. Throughout all the setbacks and frustrations, Kasinal Cashe-White, Cashe's eldest sister, has campaigned for him to receive the medal for 15 years. Eventually, she was able to watch the president describe her brother's heroism.

Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Celiz met his wife Katie while they were both working at a grocery store during high school. Her husband was killed on a battlefield in Afghanistan when, despite his injuries, he used his body as a shield against enemy fire instead of boarding an evacuation helicopter. 

It really didn't look like Master Sgt. Earl Plumlee would survive the day that he would demonstrate his courage back in 2013. At the White House in mid-December, he stood upright in his crisp uniform in the East Room. 

All three medals were awarded to veterans of post-9/11 wars. Cashe is the first Black person to receive the Medal of Honor in either conflict.

As the war insurgency in Iraq raged to a bloody crescendo, Cashe was on patrol near Samarra in 2005. He was a non-commissioned officer who had enlisted 16 years earlier and felt a special responsibility for the soldiers in his unit. One of his Bradley Fighting Vehicles was hit by an improvised explosive device and immediately caught on fire. 

This resulted in soldiers being trapped inside. As Cashe climbed into the Bradley three times to save others, his fuel-soaked uniform caught fire. He was able to save six other soldiers and an interpreter from Iraq. 
Biden referred to him as the soldier's soldier. "No soldier is going to be left behind on his watch. When helicopters began to arrive, he insisted that his troops be evacuated before he would go," Biden said.

Cashe died from burns affecting 72% of his body three weeks later at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas.

It took almost all the years since he died for Cashe’s sister to believe he would one day receive the Medal of Honor for his actions that night. Upon hearing the news, she was shocked. "This time, it was a blowout like, ‘Oh y God’ so it was a good thing," Cashe-White said.

Shannon and Katie Celiz stood in the East Room with Biden on Dec. 16 without Celiz as a soldier listed Celiz's heroic actions.

As a result of his refusal to evacuate troops during a vicious firefight in Paktia province, Afghanistan, in the summer of 2018, he left his family without a husband and father. The decision was difficult for his wife to accept.

While on his fifth deployment with the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Celiz purposely exposed himself to machine-gun and small-arms fire from the enemy, allowing his unit to change positions.

Celiz, who was shot and killed during the helicopter's takeoff, placed himself between the enemy and the crew, protecting them and allowing the helicopter to depart.

Many years earlier, before 9/11 and his time in the Army, Celiz and Katie worked in the same grocery store in South Carolina. During Katie's shifts, her jacket would mysteriously disappear from its hanger, and one day she caught Celiz wearing it.

"The next day, I went to go get my jacket and it was finally there, and inside the coat pockets were rose petals," Katie Celiz said. "I just felt blessed that I got to have the years that I had with Chris."