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Ventura County Veteran Receives Nation's Highest Military Honor In White House Ceremony

John Canley at the White House Wedneday to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Trump

A retired U.S. Marine from Ventura County received the nation’s highest military honor. Sergeant Major John Canley was presented with the Congressional Medal of Honor at the White House Wednesday. It was for a string of heroic actions in 1968, during the Vietnam War.

During the ceremony, President Trump talked about one of the former Marine’s acts to save his fellow soldiers as U.S. forces were being overrun during North Vietnam’s Tet offensive.

He told the story of how a Marine had been hit by rocket fire, and was about to be overrun by an oncoming tank. Canley braved enemy fire to carry the wounded man out of the path of the tank, and the gunfire.

The Medal of Honor had been sought for the now 80 year old Oxnard man by fellow Marines for decades. It was finally approved after a push by Democratic Congresswoman Julia Brownley of Westlake Village.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral. 
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