President Obama Awards Medal of Honor to Vietnam Veterans

President Obama awarded Monday, the Medal of Honor to two soldiers who served in the Vietnam War.

The Medal of Honor is United State's highest military honor bestowed for personal acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty.

At a ceremony at the White House, Obama gave the nation's highest military honor to  Army Command Sergeant Major Bennie Adkins and late Army Specialist Donald Sloat.

Sloat's brother, William, accepted the medal on his behalf from the President.

"Over the decades, our Vietnam veterans didn't always receive the thanks and respect they deserved. That's a fact," Obama said. "But as we have been reminded again today, our Vietnam vets were patriots and are patriots."

"You served with valor, you made us proud, and your service is with us for eternity," Obama said, reports the Associated Press.

Sergeant Major Adkins was sent to Vietnam three times with the Special Forces. During his second combat tour in 1966, he bravely fought a large North Vietnamese force that attacked his camp.

He fought for 38 hours in close combat with the enemy and evaded mortar rounds while dragging wounded soldiers to safety.

"Bennie ran into enemy fire - again and again - to retrieve supplies, ammo, to carry the wounded to safety, to man the mortar pit," Obama said, adding he did not have time to narrate the whole of veteran's heroism, reports BBC.

When helicopters finally arrived to evacuate the camp, Adkins had gone to retrieve a badly wounded soldier. By the time he returned, the helicopters were gone. Adkins then led his soldiers to the jungle and fought off the North Vietnamese as well as a tiger before another helicopter came to evacuate them 48 hours later. Till he was rescued, Adkins had killed nearly 175 enemy soldiers, reports CBS News.

Specialist Donald Sloat was twenty when he was killed in action. During a patrol, a soldier walking at the front set off a tripwire which detonated a booby trap put by the enemies.

Sloat picked up the grenade and realized that it was very late to throw it away. In order to save the rest of his team, he held on to the grenade and pulled it close to his body. All other men in the team survived the blast through his heroic deed.

"In that moment he could have run... he could have ducked for cover, but Don did something truly extraordinary," Obama said, reports CBS News.

Typically, the Medal of Honor recommendation must be made within two years of the act of heroism. However, Congress made an exception for Adkins and Sloat.