Army vet gets Medal of Honor for valor in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON -- A former Californian was awarded the nation’s highest military honor on Monday for his efforts against a 2009 Taliban attack on his Afghanistan outpost that U.S. officials have described as tactically indefensible.

Former Staff Sgt. Clinton Romesha, 31, received the Medal of Honor from President Obama during a nationally televised ceremony Monday. Romesha is the fourth living recipient who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan. Seven others who fought in those conflicts have received the medal posthumously.

Romesha grew up in Lake City in Northern California, near the Oregon border, and now lives in Minot, N.D., with his wife and three children, all of whom attended Monday's ceremony. Obama joked how Romesha’s youngest child had run around the Oval Office, sampling apples.

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