Congress Authorizes Medal of Honor for John W. Ripley
Public Law 119-81 directs the President to award the Medal of Honor to John W. Ripley for actions in the Vietnam War. The statute creates a statutory exception to the time limit that normally bars consideration of awards more than three years after the qualifying service.
manilatimes.netPublic Law 119-81, signed June 11, 2026, authorizes the President to award the Medal of Honor to Marine Corps Captain John W. Ripley for combat actions at the Dong Ha bridge in 1972.
The law applies to one individual and removes the statutory bar that prevents the Department of Defense from forwarding recommendations filed after the three-year statutory window.
Prior to this enactment, 10 U.S.C. § 1130 required that Medal of Honor recommendations reach the service secretary within three years of the act of valor; Ripley’s nomination had been submitted decades later. The new statute waives that deadline solely for this case and does not alter the three-year rule for any other service member.
The Department of Defense must now prepare the formal recommendation package and forward it to the President for final approval. Once the award is approved, the Army’s Institute of Heraldry will produce the physical medal and citation, and the Marine Corps will schedule a presentation ceremony.
No additional funding is required; existing Defense Department accounts cover production and ceremony costs.
This is the third private-law waiver Congress has enacted since 2018 to permit late consideration of Vietnam-era Medal of Honor nominations after the original three-year filing period had closed.
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