assigned to make a risky daylight raid on a compound why u.s. intelligence said a top al qaeda commander was hiding. the moment the helicopter landed they came under fire. within minutes as they moved into a court yard in the compound a machine gun round went through both of his legs. he was bleedly badly. he nevertheless aided another wounded soldier leaving him to take cover behind a chicken coop in the courtyard. he did this with severe injuries to both of his legs. sergeant petry launched a grenade in the direction of the enemy fighters, who were shooting at the rangers. that provided enough cover for a third ranger to join them behind the chicken coop to evaluate the wounds. an enemy grenade exploded in the courtyard. it further hurt the ranger that he was helping and the third ranger. a second grenade thrown by the energy fighters landed next to the three wounded rangers. it had not exploded yet.
of army soldiers. he was with a unit conducting what i consider to be one of the more, if not the most difficult of all tactical operations and that is a daylight raid. out of the cover of darkness. it has to be done now, you have no other choice. special operations like these kinds of things have been making life difficult for the taliban in afghanistan. what happened to him is like something out of a movie and maybe a bad movie. suddenly he finds himself with a live grenade that lands near him, right? he s already been wounded. he has been shot through both legs. all his buddies were killed or wounded. he s trying to rescue a fellow also shot this time in the chest right through the ribs. brought him to safety under constant fire. a grenade landed from the enemy. to throw a grenade you have to
that s going to happen at the white house. president obama will award the medal of honor to the second living soldier to serve it for service in afghanistan. army ranger hero petry lost his right hand when he threw a live grenade away from his fellow soldiers during a rare daylight raid. the remarkable soldier saving lives despite taking live round to both of his legs before he reached over and bailed that grenade out of that area. james rosen is live with us on the ranger s story. it s an incredible one. that happens a few minutes from now. hard at work. high above the. this is a live look at astronauts take place in the only space walk scheduled for this shuttle mission. it will likely be a long time before you see american astronauts doing this type of work again.
his presidential run. that just into msnbc. we ll be covering that today. we are less than two hours away from a special ceremony at the white house. sergeant first class le roy petry will be receiving the medal of honor from president obama. he s the second living recipient from the wars in iraq and afghanistan. he lost his happened when he threw a grenade away from two fellow soldiers during a daylight raid in 2008. brian williams has an exclusive interview with petry tonight on nbc nightly news. here s a preview for you. what would you like civilians civilians in this country who don t serve in the military a lot of them have it pretty good. what would you like them to know about their modern military? i had something that i come up with. i haven t heard it before. we ll give you credit anyway. i look at all the military and all the fallen heroes that gave the ultimate sacrifice and
chris: between that statement and the stepped-up airstrikes on tripoli, are you now satisfied with the coalition s effort to topple qaddafi? no, i m not. but they ve obviously stepped it up and i m sorry you didn t know the president s statement, at the beginning, it is a humanitarian effort and it will be nato and we will not have anything to do that and i m glad to see him gradually changing but as he s changing people are dying on the ground in libya and they wouldn t have to if we were using all of u.s. air power and the abilities and unique capabilities the u.s. military has, and, unfortunately, we are not, although we are gradually stepping it up and the attacks are stepping up, it was a raid on daylight raid on tripoli, which is unusual here in the last 24 hours. and qaddafi may crack, he may crack but it could have been over a long time ago. if we brought the full weight of american air power to bear on him, and, it is unfortunate.