When gunfire erupted, Edward Byers did not hesitate. He was the second Navy SEAL through a makeshift door of the small, one-room Taliban hideout where an American doctor was being held captive. For his bravery in the bloody rescue, Byers will receive the nation’s highest honor for military valor.

When World War II veteran Hershel “Woody” Williams first heard of the effort to get a U.S. Navy ship named in his honor, he didn’t think it was possible.

Tibor Rubin, a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor who joined the U.S. Army out of gratitude for his liberation from the Nazis, then earned the Medal of Honor for heroism in the Korean War, died Saturday in Garden Grove, Calif. He was 86.

George T. "Joe" Sakato, a soldier whose heroism during World War II was not fully recognized for more than 50 years, until he and other Asian American veterans were belatedly awarded the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony, died Dec. 2 at his home in Denver. He was 94.

VIDEO

Army Capt. Florent Groberg left Afghanistan in 2012 with a mangled left leg that required more than 30 surgeries and confined him to a hospital bed for three months. It was the most difficult time of his life.

Vietnam Veteran John Phillip Baca was honored during the Forgotten Sons “Ride to Live” fundraising motorcycle ride, which focused on preventing veteran suicide.

Medal of Honor recipient Florent Groberg's mother says Wednesday's announcement that her son will receive the nation's highest military honor caught her by surprise. "He never thought about himself ... he did his job," said Klara Groberg.

Capt. Florent Groberg, 32, will be awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama during a ceremony planned for Nov. 12.

Florent Groberg, formerly of the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division, is the third Fort Carson, Colo., soldier from the unit to receive the Army's highest award, the Medal of Honor.

Shot in the face during a battle in the Korean War, Einar Ingman kept on fighting. When he ran out of bullets, he used his bayonet.

The two Marines who met at Pearl Harbor on Wednesday both made the decision to take the brunt of grenade blasts with their bodies, saving the lives of others in the process.

For nearly 70 years, Bonnyman's family remembered the handsome, adventurous man they had lost with what few artifacts they had left: his Medal of Honor, awarded posthumously for his efforts to hold back a Japanese counterattack; a large portrait, commissioned from an Italian oil painter; and a few black-and-white photographs taken during the assault on Betio.

It's time to set the record straight for Sgt. Henry Johnson.

Marine Cpl. William Thomas Perkins Jr. documented history as a combat photographer. Now his posthumously awarded Congressional Medal of Honor will go to Washington, D.C., to document his role in the Vietnam War.

They were among the bravest who fought the Germans in the hellish War to End All Wars in Europe, but for nearly a century their legacy has been obscured by discrimination.

President Barack Obama will award two soldiers the Medal of Honor for their bravery during World War I, part of an ongoing effort to recognize minority soldiers who may have been passed over because of their race or religion.

GALLERY

Dismembered horses. Hundreds of Confederate dead and dying all around. It was the last day at Ground Zero of the grueling Battle of Gettysburg. And it was where 1st Lt. Alonzo H. Cushing spent his last moments alive.

GALLERY, VIDEO

On Medal of Honor Day, some of the nation’s most renowned military heroes gathered Wednesday to recognize and honor others. For many, it was a time of deep reflection.

Hershel "Woody" Williams, the last surviving recipient of the Medal of Honor from the World War II battle of Iwo Jima, talks about his recent visit to the island where his life changed forever.

Clint Romesha's Medal of Honor jingles with the keys and change in the front pocket of his blue jeans.

The Distinguished Ameri­can Award was presented to four honorees Thursday during the fifth annual Jimmie Dyess Symposium for their outstanding contributions to community and country.

When the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation signed a lease for waterfront property at Patriots Point about a year ago, the question on most minds was whether the nonprofit could raise $100 million to build the national museum. Now, the foundation is well ahead of its goal to raise $5 million by the end of the year.

GALLERY

Medal of Honor recipient Kyle Carpenter plans to drop in, literally, on Sunday’s Marine Corps Marathon. The medically retired Marine will parachute to the starting line before running the race.

VIDEO, PHOTO GALLERY

Running through sniper and mortar fire to retrieve wounded comrades and ammunition, fighting off Vietnamese soldiers, digging an escape tunnel to help his fellow soldiers survive a brutal assault, all while bleeding from multiple wounds — the full story of Bennie Adkins’ heroism during a deadly 38-hour battle could not fit in a 20-minute ceremony.

President Barack Obama will award the Medal of Honor to two soldiers who served in Vietnam and one who distinguished himself in the battle of Gettysburg, the White House announced Tuesday.

Bernard Fisher, who risked his life landing his attack plane to rescue a fellow pilot while North Vietnamese troops shot at him, died Saturday at age 87.

The crew of the guided missile frigate held a ceremony Sept. 8 to pay tribute to Rodney M. Davis, according to a release from the Navy.

GALLERY

For decades, Spc. 4 Donald P. Sloat’s mother thought he had died after stepping on a land mine in Vietnam. Then, in 2010, she heard the real story: Her son was killed saving the lives of the other men in his squad.

The late Rudy Hernandez, who received the Medal of Honor while fighting as an Army corporal in the Korean War, has been immortalized in a new exhibit at the Airborne & Special Operations Museum in North Carolina.

As the 1,100 enlisted Marines packed in the base theater Monday morning waited for Cpl. William Kyle Carpenter to arrive, they plotted how to be the first to get a selfie with the newest Medal of Honor recipient and the second living Marine of their generation to receive the award.

World War I veteran George Seanor Robb earned the Medal of Honor, one of only four native Kansans in the "Great War" so recognized, but visitors who happened on his modest headstone in Gypsum Hill Cemetery never would know it. Until Friday.

Former Staff Sgt. Ryan M. Pitts, a forward observer who fought through critical injuries to help turn the tide in one of the deadliest attacks of the war in Afghanistan, will receive the Medal of Honor next month.

“Cpl. William ‘Kyle’ Carpenter should not be alive today,” President Barack Obama told those gathered at the White House Thursday to see the severely wounded Marine receive the Medal of Honor.

Marine Lance Cpls. Kyle Carpenter and Nicholas Eufrazio were standing watch on the roof of a mud and timber building being used as the command center at Patrol Base Dakota, in the Marjah district of Helmand province.

Sgt. Candelario Garcia Jr. received a posthumous Medal of Honor on March 18 in a mass ceremony to recognize soldiers who might have been overlooked for the highest honor because of their skin color or religious affiliation.

Former Marine Cpl. William “Kyle” Carpenter will be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Afghanistan, the White House announced Monday.

“If you look closely at [White] on his way to work, you'll notice a piece of the war that he carries with him, tucked under his shirt sleeve: a stainless steel bracelet around his wrist, etched with the names of his six fallen comrades, who will always be with him,” Obama said Tuesday during the White House ceremony.

Q&A

Before he's to receive the Medal of Honor on Tuesday, former Army Sgt. Kyle J. White sat down with Stars and Stripes to talk about the battle that earned him the award and life after the military.

Though soldiers who return home from combat are thousands of miles away and often years removed from the battleground, the trauma never completely goes away.

Former Army Sgt. Kyle J. White, who will be awarded the Medal of Honor next month, said troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder shouldn’t suffer in silence.

Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Leo Thorsness is one of a dwindling number of men who've received the nation's highest honor for military valor.

White, 27, will receive the nation's highest military award for his actions during a dismounted movement in mountainous terrain in Aranas, Afghanistan, on Nov. 9, 2007.

I Corps spokesman Col. Dave Johson said William Swenson joined the Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., headquarters on March 14 as a captain.

Three Afghanistan veterans whose battlefield bravery earned them the nation’s highest military honor received new recognition Wednesday when their names were unveiled on the state Capitol’s Medal of Honor monument.

VIDEO, PHOTOS

Three Americans who showed courage in extraordinary situations were presented with the Citizen Honors Awards on Tuesday at Arlington National Cemetery.

A LAST ENEMY OVERCOME

The 24 soldiers honored in a historic ceremony at the White House fought in World War II and the wars in Korea and Vietnam with all the ferocious skill and selfless bravery required of Medal of Honor recipients.

Spc. Santiago J. Erevia had orders to tend the wounded while the rest of the platoon pressed on attacking. But when he and the men under his care came under fire from four nearby Viet Cong bunkers on May 21, 1969, Erevia didn’t dive for cover.

A day before a White House ceremony at which 24 Army veterans are to be awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama, Stars and Stripes talked with one of the three living recipients-to-be and several relatives and friends of those who are to be honored posthumously.

A former Borinqueneer said the decision to give Master Sgt. Juan E. Negron the Medal of Honor was a sign the country was beginning to understand the sacrifices made by Puerto Rico's renowned 65th Infantry Regiment.

President Barack Obama reportedly will award medically retired Marine Lance Cpl. William Kyle Carpenter the Medal of Honor later this year in recognition of Carpenter’s actions during a 2010 grenade attack in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama will award the Medal of Honor to 24 Army veterans for conspicuous gallantry, in some cases correcting what was decades of discrimination.

For extraordinary acts of courage during the D-Day invasion of World War II, Walter Ehlers received the nation’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor. It changed his life. Ehlers, 92, died Thursday at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Long Beach, Calif.

Their heroic deeds in 1969 earned them the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second-highest award for gallantry. Forty-four years later, they're heroes again after a Pentagon panel scrutinized a raft of combat records and decided they deserved the Medal of Honor.

Cpl. Rudy Hernandez cheated death on the battlefields of Korea 62 years ago. But the Medal of Honor recipient and Fayetteville resident couldn't live forever. The 82-year-old Hernandez died early Saturday, according to friends.

Those looking to remember Medal of Honor recipient Cpl. Rudy Hernandez need only walk through the doors of the Airborne & Special Operations Museum in downtown Fayetteville.

Nearly four years after a bloody Afghanistan ambush that left five American troops dead, including the son of a Riverview woman, U.S. Central Command is still ensnared in an ongoing controversy of why it took so long to award an Army captain a Medal of Honor for his role in that battle.

A 27-year U.S. Postal Service employee is among 12 World War II Medal of Honor recipients who were recognized with the unveiling of a new postage stamp on Monday, Veterans Day.

At 19, John “Bud” Hawk had been in the Army a little more than a year when German tanks started blasting away at his machine-gun unit in a Normandy apple orchard.

Medal of Honor recipient Clarence Sasser was further immortalized at Texas A&M on Thursday when he became the first black veteran and first Vietnam veteran to be enshrined in the university's Hall of Honor.

Retired Army Gen. David Petraeus recommended that the Medal of Honor nomination of former Army Capt. William Swenson be downgraded to a lower award, according to a Pentagon investigation that failed to resolve how Swenson’s papers then disappeared instead of being sent up the chain of command.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel apologized Wednesday to former Army Capt. William Swenson for the mishandling of his Medal of Honor nomination four years after his heroism in a deadly six-hour battle in Afghanistan.

Former Army Capt. William Swenson received his Medal of Honor on Tuesday, but he’s not done serving.

In his memoir, Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Dakota Meyer describes how he switched from his machine gun to his rifle and back as he mowed down a swarm of Taliban from the vehicle’s turret. But videos shot by Army medevac helicopter crewmen show no Taliban in that vicinity.

It’s sadly fitting that William Swenson’s Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House on Tuesday has been overshadowed by the government shutdown and the looming debt ceiling crisis.