{"id":2120,"date":"2014-03-18T20:27:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-18T20:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/166.62.41.2\/~holaamericanews\/2014\/03\/18\/president-obama-awards-the-medal-of-honor-to-24-army-veterans-19-of-them-were-previously-overlooked-for-the-medal-of-honor-due-to-their-racial-or-ethnic-backgrounds\/"},"modified":"2014-03-18T20:27:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-18T20:27:00","slug":"president-obama-awards-the-medal-of-honor-to-24-army-veterans-19-of-them-were-previously-overlooked-for-the-medal-of-honor-due-to-their-racial-or-ethnic-backgrounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/president-obama-awards-the-medal-of-honor-to-24-army-veterans-19-of-them-were-previously-overlooked-for-the-medal-of-honor-due-to-their-racial-or-ethnic-backgrounds\/","title":{"rendered":"President Obama Awards the Medal of Honor to 24 Army Veterans 19 of them were previously overlooked for the Medal of Honor due to their racial or ethnic backgrounds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>March 18, 2014 -This afternoon, President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to 24 Army veterans in recognition of their valor during major combat operations in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.<br \/>Each veteran honored today had already received the Distinguished Service Cross \u2013 the nation&#8217;s second-highest military award \u2013 but 19 of them were previously overlooked for the Medal of Honor due to their racial or ethnic backgrounds. Today&#8217;s ceremony follows a 12-year Pentagon review, ordered by Congress, of past discrimination in the military.<\/p>\n<p>  <!--more-->  <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No nation is perfect,&#8221; the President said at today&#8217;s ceremony. &#8220;But here in America, we confront our imperfections and face a sometimes painful past, including the truth that some of these soldiers fought and died for a country that did not always see them as equal.&#8221;<br \/>At the ceremony, the President awarded the Medal of Honor to three living veterans, and 21 other veterans received the honor posthumously.<\/p><div id=\"holaa-1641053677\" class=\"holaa-ad-inside-articles-2\" style=\"margin-top: 2px;margin-bottom: 2px;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;text-align: center;\"><div class=\"holaa-adlabel\">Advertisements<\/div><a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.desmoinesperformingarts.org\/whats-on\/series\/summerarts\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"a2t-link\" aria-label=\"HI-SummerSeries-300&#215;250-SP\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/HI-SummerSeries-300x250-SP.jpg\" alt=\"\"  width=\"300\" height=\"250\"  style=\"display: inline-block;\" \/><\/a><\/div><br style=\"clear: both; display: block; float: none;\"\/>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;\" lang=\"EN\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/the-press-office\/2014\/02\/21\/president-obama-award-medal-honor\"><span style=\"color: #336699; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Read more details on the recipients here.<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Living veterans honored at today&#8217;s ceremony:<figure id=\"attachment_2117\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2117\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"caption alignright size-full wp-image-2117\" src=\"http:\/\/166.62.41.2\/~holaamericanews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Medal%20Honor%204.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" title=\"President Barack Obama presents the Medal of Honor to Specialist Four Santiago J. Erevia during the Medal of Honor ceremony in the East Room of the White House, March 18, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)\" align=\"right\" width=\"410\" height=\"273\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2117\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Barack Obama presents the Medal of Honor to Specialist Four Santiago J. Erevia during the Medal of Honor ceremony in the East Room of the White House, March 18, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Specialist Four Santiago J. Erevia<br \/>Staff Sergeant Melvin Morris<br \/>Sergeant First Class Jose Rodela<\/p>\n<p><strong>Veterans honored posthumously at today&#8217;s ceremony:<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"holaa-2763202331\" class=\"holaa-ad-inside-articles\" style=\"margin-top: 2px;margin-bottom: 2px;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;text-align: center;\"><div class=\"holaa-adlabel\">Advertisements<\/div><a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/hhs.iowa.gov\/health-prevention\/diabetes-prevention-management\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"a2t-link\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Diabetes Spanish 300&#215;250\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Diabetes-Spanish-300x250-2.jpg\" alt=\"\"  width=\"300\" height=\"250\"  style=\"display: inline-block;\" \/><\/a><\/div><br style=\"clear: both; display: block; float: none;\"\/>\n<p><em><strong>World War II veterans<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Private Pedro Cano<br \/>Private Joe Gandara<br \/>Private First Class Salvador J. Lara<br \/>Sergeant William F. Leonard<br \/>Staff Sergeant Manuel V. Mendoza<br \/>Sergeant Alfred B. Nietzel<br \/>First Lieutenant Donald K. Schwab<\/p><div id=\"holaa-2024788484\" class=\"holaa-content\" style=\"margin-top: 2px;margin-bottom: 2px;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;text-align: center;\"><div class=\"holaa-adlabel\">Advertisements<\/div><a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/progressiowa.org\/2023\/08\/take-action-with-progress-iowa\/?utm_source=news&#038;utm_medium=site&#038;utm_campaign=2026&#038;utm_id=News\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"a2t-link\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Progress Iowa Spanish 300&#215;250\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Progress-Iowa-Spanish-300x250-1.png\" alt=\"\"  width=\"300\" height=\"250\"  style=\"display: inline-block;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><em><strong>Korean War veterans<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Corporal Joe R. Baldonado<br \/>Corporal Victor H. Espinoza<br \/>Sergeant Eduardo C. Gomez<br \/>Private First Class Leonard M. Kravitz<figure id=\"attachment_2118\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2118\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"caption alignright size-full wp-image-2118\" src=\"http:\/\/166.62.41.2\/~holaamericanews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Medal%20Honor%202.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" title=\"President Barack Obama presents the Medal of Honor to Sergeant First Class Jose Rodela during the Medal of Honor ceremony in the East Room of the White House, March 18, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)\" align=\"right\" width=\"410\" height=\"273\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2118\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Barack Obama presents the Medal of Honor to Sergeant First Class Jose Rodela during the Medal of Honor ceremony in the East Room of the White House, March 18, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>Master Sergeant Juan E. Negron<br \/>Master Sergeant Mike C. Pena<br \/>Private Demensio Rivera<br \/>Private Miguel A. Vera<br \/>Sergeant Jack Weinstein<\/p><div id=\"holaa-990900536\" class=\"holaa-content_2\" style=\"margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 2px;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;text-align: center;\"><div class=\"holaa-adlabel\">Advertisements<\/div><a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/yourlifeiowa.org\/locations?&#038;utm_campaign=FY2026_OD2A_MOUD&#038;utm_content=Recovery_is_Possible&#038;utm_medium=banner&#038;utm_source=iowa_newspaper_association\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"a2t-link\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"287-10024_MOUD_300BannersF_es-US_LaRecuperacion_01\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/287-10024_MOUD_300BannersF_es-US_LaRecuperacion_01.jpg\" alt=\"\"  width=\"300\" height=\"250\"  style=\"display: inline-block;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><em><strong>Vietnam War veterans<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Sergeant Candelario Garcia<br \/>Specialist Four Leonard L. Alvarado<br \/>Staff Sergeant Felix M. Conde-Falcon<br \/>Specialist Four Ardie R. Copas<br \/>Specialist Four Jesus S. Duran<\/p><div id=\"holaa-287165068\" class=\"holaa-post-content\" style=\"margin-top: 2px;margin-bottom: 2px;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;text-align: center;\"><div class=\"holaa-adlabel\">Advertisements<\/div><a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/yourlifeiowa.org\/learn\/drugs\/about-drugs?utm_source=INA%20Spanish&#038;utm_medium=display&#038;utm_campaign=FY2026_SPFRx_FakePills#fake-pills\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"a2t-link\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"287-10559_SPFRx_FakePil-300&#215;250-px fixed\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/287-10559_SPFRx_FakePil-300x250-px-fixed.jpg\" alt=\"\"  width=\"300\" height=\"250\"  style=\"display: inline-block;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2119\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2119\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"caption alignleft size-full wp-image-2119\" src=\"http:\/\/166.62.41.2\/~holaamericanews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Medal%20Honor%203.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" title=\"President Barack Obama awarded 24 Medals of Honor during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, March 18, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)\" align=\"left\" width=\"410\" height=\"273\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2119\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Barack Obama awarded 24 Medals of Honor during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, March 18, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div id=\"holaa-2121099595\" class=\"holaa-after-content\" style=\"margin-top: 2px;margin-bottom: 2px;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;text-align: center;\"><div class=\"holaa-adlabel\">Advertisements<\/div><a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/progressiowa.org\/2023\/08\/take-action-with-progress-iowa\/?utm_source=news&#038;utm_medium=site&#038;utm_campaign=2026&#038;utm_id=News\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"a2t-link\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Progress Iowa Spanish 300&#215;250\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Progress-Iowa-Spanish-300x250-1.png\" alt=\"\"  width=\"300\" height=\"250\"  style=\"display: inline-block;\" \/><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March 18, 2014 -This afternoon, President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to 24 Army veterans in recognition of their valor during major combat operations in World War II, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2116,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}