(29 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
POOL
Washington DC – 29 April 2024
1. Various of remains of Ralph Puckett Jr. being placed in lying of honor ceremony
2. Cutaway of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell walking to podium
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader:
"Ralph Puckett wore our nation’s highest military decoration and in the hearts of generations of soldiers to come, the courage and self-sacrifice that earned that honor will be this great man’s eternal legacy. The man who volunteered for command, who repeatedly risked his own life to defend his position, rally his men and ordered them to safety without him. Who, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, said, here am I, send me."
++SEPARATED BY WHITE FLASH++
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House:
"On that cold day in November 1950, Colonel Puckett was there for his men and his country. And today, America gets to show our thanks to the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from the Korean War. And we all get a chance to be there for the colonel and his family, honoring his life and sacrifice in these hallowed halls of American democracy."
5. Pan of ceremony
STORYLINE:
The last Medal of Honor recipient of the Korean War is given one of Congress’ highest honors.
Congress held a lying in honor ceremony in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda for Ralph Puckett Jr., who recently died and was decorated for leading an outnumbered company of Army Rangers in battle during the Korean War.
Puckett, who retired as an Army colonel, died earlier this month at the age of 97 at his home in Columbus, Georgia.
He was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor, in 2021, seven decades after his actions during the Korean War.
The farewell ceremony at the Capitol is reserved only for the nation’s most distinguished private citizens. Seven others have received the honor, and the last was fellow Medal of Honor Recipient Hershel W. “Woody” Williams, decorated for his actions during World War II, in 2022.
Over two days in November 1950, Puckett led his roughly 50 Rangers in securing a strategically important hill near Unsan. Puckett sprinted across the open area to draw fire so that Rangers could find and destroy enemy machine-gunners. Though badly outnumbered, Puckett’s troops repelled multiple counterattacks from a Chinese battalion of an estimated 500 soldiers before being overrun.
Puckett suffered serious wounds to his feet, backside and left arm after two mortar rounds landed in his foxhole. He ordered his men to leave him behind, but they refused.
Puckett was a newly commissioned Army officer when he volunteered for the 8th Army Ranger Company that was formed soon after the Korean War began in 1950. Despite his inexperience, Puckett ended up being chosen as the unit’s commander.
He had less than six weeks to train his soldiers before they joined the fight.
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