families, our military, our country, strengthen us in faith and renew us in spirit and send uss forth with your peace. amen. jim, thank you, god bless you, god bless your family, god bless of united states of america. thank you, jim. [ applause ] we always want to take they medal of honor recipient ceremonies live. it s so entirely special for these individuals and really for all of us here. congratulations, and huge thank
member he could find of his beloved charlie company. to many people in this room specialist 5 mcclun has always been their friend jim. to others he s been coach. to those who bravely served with him in vietnam, he s still called their doc. to his parents scotty and margaret, both watching from heaven, elalways be their son. but today 32 million grateful american hearts, private mcclun carries one i am mortal title, and that title is hero. special spis 5 mcclun, we honor you, we salute you, and with god as your witness, we thank you for what you did for all of us.
mattis and members of the armed forces, thank you for joining us as we award our highest military honor to specialist 5 james c. mccluen. today we pay tribute to a veteran who went above and beyond the call of duty to protect our comrades, our country and our freedom. joining jim today is his wife, sherri, his brothers mike and tom and his sons, jamie and matt and many other members of his very large and beautiful family. we re also gratified to be joined by eight previous medal of honor recipients. now, jim s name will stand
he was prepared that lay down his life so his brothers in arms could live theirs. with us today are ten of the men who fought alongside jim and five of those he saved. to bill, randy, mike, joe, kent, robert, john, charles, michael, orestes, thank you for your service and your sacrifice. stand up wherever you may be. where are you? where are you? [ applause ]
but this was only the first of many hee roik deeds jim would perform over the next 24 hours. after tending to the first wounded soldier, jim joined a mission to advance toward the enemy and advance they did. before long they were ambushed. again he ran into danger to rescue his men. as he cared for two soldiers, shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade slashed open the back of jim s body from head to foot. yet that terrible wound didn t stop jim from pulling those two men to safety, nor did it stop him from answering the plea of another wounded comrade and carrying him to safety atop his own badly injured body. he was badly injured. and so it went, shot after shot,