Netizens and some media reported that the US President was embarrassed and accidentally put a medal on either a veteran or an official backwards. We checked whether Biden really made a mistake during the award ceremony.
On July 5, 2022, a ceremony was held at the White House at which the US President presented four Medals of Honor. After this, a short video appeared on social networks in poor quality, which, according to online publications, shows how Joe Biden puts a medal on the neck of one of the recipients backwards.
The recording was widely circulated in posts in both Russian and English. For example, on Twitter, videos from verified accounts The W&J Show w/ Kenny Webster And Sebastian Gorka DrG at the time of writing this text received more than 970,000 and 47,000 views, respectively. In addition, there are numerous tweets in Russian (examples here, here And here), as well as entries in Telegram channels (here, here, here And here) and videos on YouTube (here, here And here). On VKontakte, posts with videos or screenshots and corresponding commentary about Biden’s mistake can be found in the following public pages: "Vatnik" (more than 15,000 views), "Black Square • uncensored news" (159,000), "Kursk beau monde""(132,000), "Russia | Z O V | General Staff reports" (34,000), "Axe - storage" (344,000), "Road accidents in Belgorod and the region" (33,000), "Emergency Yamal" (31,000), "Are they stupid?" (190,000) and "Business Quote Book" (97,000).
The news is also found outside of social networks. So, on the Tsargrad website she came out under the heading “Video of the day: Biden mixed up the back and chest of a veteran - it turned out awkward, but funny” (the publication was later deleted, but stayed archival copy and Belarusian version). Biden's mistake was also reported on the websites "Strana.ua", "Skeptic UA", Minval.az, "I cried", E-News.su And 9111.ru. Separately, we note that the recipient is most often called simply a man or a peasant, but sometimes a veteran or an official (here, here, here And here).
The Medal of Honor is the highest military reward USA. It is presented by the President on behalf of Congress and is awarded only to those members of the Armed Forces of the United States who have distinguished themselves by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of their lives above and beyond the call of duty. There are three different versions of the medal: one for the Army, one for the Air Force, and one for the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.
On July 5, Biden awarded Medals of Honor to four US Army soldiers who fought in Vietnam. Medal received Staff Sergeant Edward N. Kaneshiro (awarded posthumously, accepted by his son), Specialist 5th Class Dennis M. Fujii, Major John J. Duffy (retired), and Specialist 5th Class Dwight W. Birdwell. It is Birdwell who appears in the videos as the one who was given the wrong award.
According to press release On the White House website, Birdwell was recognized for his heroism on January 31, 1968. That day, the enemy attacked Tan Son Nhat Air Base, resulting in the wounding of Birdwell's tank commander. Then he took command, moved the commander to a safe place and opened fire from the tank's guns until the cartridges ran out. Then Birdwell got it machine gun and continued to fire until the weapon was damaged by enemy fire and exploded, as a result of which he was wounded in the face and torso. But he refused to evacuate and led a small group of soldiers until reinforcements arrived, and then helped evacuate the wounded. Birdwell currently practices law.
Since this was an official White House event, there is a lot of high-definition video of the awards in the public domain - for example, in the official Twitter account president. When watching the HD version of the viral video, it is clear that Biden is wearing the medal correctly. This moment can be seen at approximately 29th minute broadcast from PBS, the relevant excerpt is below.
In addition, on the Internet There is There are many high-quality photographs from the event, which clearly show that Biden put the medal on the veteran with the right side. Below attached photo from the official Twitter account of the US President.
So the culprit is the poor quality of the cropped video from the viral posts, which caused the medal in the image to blend in with Birdwell's multi-colored tie.
Cover photo: Screenshot from PBS News Hour video
Not true
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- Snopes. No, Biden Didn't Put Medal of Honor on Backwards
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