welcomed several medal of honor recipients to the white house for a reception to honor their service. the medal of honor is the highest military honor bestowed to servicemembers who display acts of valor in combat. this is 20 minutes. [applause] president trump: thank you very much, everybody. a lot of brave people in this room. i am truly thrilled to welcome back all of you folks to the white house. 33 recipients, our nations highest military award, the congressional medal of honor. now they say the medal of honor, am i wrong in saying it sounds better when you say the congressional medal of honor? it is a very special thing, a special group of people. nearly half of the nation's 72 living recipients are here with us tonight. recipients living and we have half tonight. i feel i know you. most of you i have met more than once. interview went above and beyond the call of duty, each of you risked life and limb without a thought for your own safety. each of you has made a lasting mark on our nation. the congressional medal of honor is the supreme symbol of american courage. it is the ultimate tribute to american valor. you are the strongest, the bravest and the finest among us. my ego is not that big, i admit it. i admit it. [laughter] [applause] president trump: and we think god you were there in america's hour of need. honorl all honor medal of winners and recipients and will always do that, and to be here tonight with you is very special, i want to thank you all for coming to the white house. we have some tremendous people paying great respect to you in this room. other than our medal of honor winners, we have some tremendous people, highly respected, and they all wanted to be here. winners to ask for the of the congressional medal of honor to please stand, thank you. [applause] president trump: thank you very much. that is really something. before continuing, i would like to provide an up date on our preparations for the incoming hurricanes. we have some really big situations confronting us. it's coming in fairly fast, and it's going to be one of the biggest to ever hit the east coast. one of the biggest to ever hit our country. maybe something will happen but it's looking like that probably won't be taking place, unfortunately, meaning veering away from land. my administration is in close coordination with state and local authorities, and fema, these are tremendous people also, as you know. they have already placed extensive resources on the ground including search and rescue experts. power restoration, and medical support. tremendous people working on the hurricane. first responders, law enforcement, and fema, and they are all ready, and we're getting tremendous accolades from politicians and the people, we're ready but this is going to be one of the biggest ones to ever hit our country. residents in the path of these devastating storms should comply with all evacuation orders and other emergency instructions. protection of life is the absolute highest priority, and that's what we're doing. it's called protection of life. so god bless everybody and be careful. thank you. [applause] president trump: for tonight's medal of honor reception we're also joined by members of my cabinet, secretary of the treasury, steven mnuchin. where are you? i don't know if you would ever win this award, steve. [laughter] president trump: it's a tough award, right, in a different way. you're doing great job. thank you. , thank you very much. sonny perdue. thank you. alex acosta. thank you, alex. ben carson. thank you, ben. elaine chao, secretary of transportation. how is transportation doing? good. robert wilkie. doing great job for the v.a. we are doing a great job. we have choice and accountability, things that no one ever thought you would see. they worked 46 or 47 years on trying to get veterans choice. we now have a veterans choice and accountability. they don't do the job, boom. you're fired. [laughter] we want thatmp: for our veterans, right? [applause] president trump: and a man doing a fantastic job, acting administrator, andrew wheeler. thank you, appreciate it. we're grateful to the distinguished military leaders in attendance, including secretary of the navy richard spencer. thank you. secretary of the air force, heather wilson. [applause] president trump: thank you. vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, paul selva. thank you, paul. [applause] president trump: and one of my favorites of the joint chiefs, come on, stand up. thank you both. [applause] president trump: i also want to thank representative mo brooks for joining us tonight. great gentleman, wherever you are, mo. thank you, mo. president trump: and a very special thank you to the members of the "congressional medal of honor" society. tonight we're privileged to be in the company of america's greatest heroes. joining us this evening are three extraordinary americans who i had the privilege of presenting the medal of honor to. jim mccloughan, mike rose, and brit slabinski. please stand up. we're also very proud to have a marine among of us who served in world war ii and fought heroically at iwo jima. i've gotten to know him, woody williams. i've gotten to know him. 95. you look good, woody. >> you look. president trump: another friend of mine, general john kelly, and his incredible wife karen. they are here some place. john, stand up. president trump: two great people. i also want to say a word of warmth. to the spouses and loved ones. we know that the courage of our warriors is sustained by that great love, support, and sacrifice of the military families. without that it would never be the same. we understand that. all the recipients understand that, i know, so thank you all for being here and thank you for your tremendous support. thank you. president trump: the "congressional medal of honor" recipients tonight come from cities and towns all across the nation and they fought for america in fields of battle all across the world. in vietnam, bruce crandall flew a helicopter, full speed ahead, straight into enemy fire. and it was a lot of fire, from what i understand, bruce. not once, not twice, but 22 times. bruce, you can have that job, okay? [laughter] president trump: where is bruce? bruce. thank you, bruce. [applause] president trump: 22 times. ben carson, better him than us, right? in korea -- hiroshi miyamura single-handedly battled an overwhelming number of fighters without reinforcements. they didn't come. they weren't there. he kept on fighting while enduring severe wounds of his own. where is he? president trump: in afghanistan ed byers rescued a hostage from terrorists, tackled a guard in hand-to-hand combat and shielded the hostage from enemy rounds. every single recipient here this evening has acted with heroism beyond description and courage beyond measure. tremendous courage. you inspire universal admiration among freedom loving people all around the world. they respect you so much. more than you would even know. i know that tonight, you are also thinking of your fellow warriors who didn't come home. many, many warriors did not come home. we, forever, remember and eternally honor america's fallen heroes. the warriors with us today continue to give of themselves long after leaving active service. one of them is sammy davis. i know sammy davis but it's a different sammy davis. good name. where is sammy? [applause] thank you. president trump: that's true, actually, isn't it? who earned the "congressional medal of honor" for his heroic actions in vietnam. sammy teaches young people about the importance of patriotism and, just a few months ago, he received the state of indiana's most prestigious award for his life of service. sammy, that's fantastic, thank you very much. thank you. [applause] president trump: also with us is ronald rosser, who fought in korea, and then became a police chief, a construction foreman, and a history teacher. a veteran of operation enduring freedom, leroy petry, has since devoted his life to supporting our wonderful veterans. thank you very much, we have many people that are doing that. we're loving our veterans, i think honestly, more than ever before, we respect them so much. that's a whole different spirit over our country. we respect our veterans more than we've ever respected our veterans. so important. we're working so hard on that, and we're doing the job. these are just a few of the incredible stories represented in this room today. before i conclude, i would like to ask the president of the "congressional medal of honor" society to come up and say a few words. a friend of mine. please come up. [applause] >> thank you, mr. president, for two things. one is honoring us with this invitation to the white house. you know, january of next year, it's been 50 years since i was in the east room and i don't remember much about that, it's much of a fog in my mind because of the circumstances, i want to tell you, on behalf of the 32 other recipients here we're very honored to be here. but that honor pales in comparison to the honor that we have and the responsibility we share for representing all of our veterans and service members that perform deeds far greater than ours. but witnesses just aren't available. and for that, i want to say that we carry that around the country. we do what we can to spread the character and the examples of recipients to our youth. and we're just starting a new program in our outreach and we help to coordinate all the efforts against preventing the suicides. it's a tremendous problem in our country, so the society has taken this on. >> if we're all about -- [applause] if we're all about tradition, tradition starts here and we're proud to spend a week with the midshipmen over there. thank you, sir, for all you do. [applause] president trump: thank you, drew. the heroes of this room embody the highest ideals of our nation. your action demonstrate the unmatched nobility and dignity of the american warrior, and that's what you are, you're warriors, great warriors. you inspire in if each of us the greatest sense of patriotism, purpose and pride. we pledge to honor your service by supporting and, when i say support, i mean always supporting the incredible men and women of the united states military we will always remain faithful to the heroes of the american armed forces. we will forever remain loyal to our beloved veterans. and we will always defend our country, our constitution our values, our families, our freedom of people, and we will always defend our great american flag. thank you, god bless you, and god bless america. thank you. thank you. >> ladies and gentlemen, please remain in your seats until the president has departed the east room. >> every weekend, on american history tv, we feature special programs about the war. july, immediate steps were taken to concentrate american forces. . artifacts,merican war with northeastern france, visiting villages, monuments, and the american cemetery related to the battle of some yellow -- part 100 years ago. >> the weather was horrible, rainy, and chile. -- chilly. unbeknownst to them, the germans, who had occupied this whole area have begun a withdrawal. and they started to move their troops, but did not move them quickly enough. by the end of the day, the americans reached, not only the main objective for that day, but many of the objectives for the following day. by midmorning of september 13, the whole area had been liberated. artifacts,erican today at 6 p.m. eastern on c-span3. >> the human rights campaign and lgbtq advocacy group hosted its annual dinner this weekend in washington, d.c. with former vice president joe biden and his wife jill among the featured speakers. they were introduced by hrc president chad griffin. this is 45 minutes.

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