Nation
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama awarded the nation’s highest military honor to a former Army captain who tackled a suicide bomber while serving in Afghanistan.
Florent Groberg, 32, is being credited with saving fellow soldier’s lives with his actions in August 2012. He was also badly injured in the attack, which killed four people. The ceremony took place this morning at the White House and marked only the 10th time a living service member has received the Medal of Honor for actions in Afghanistan or Iraq. Seven more were posthumously awarded the medal.
Groberg was born in Poissy, France. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2001, the same year he graduated from high school in Maryland. He also competed in track and cross country at the University of Maryland before entering the Army in 2008.
Groberg deployed to Afghanistan’s Kunar Province in November 2009 and again in February 2012.
He was helping lead an escort for a meeting with an Afghan provincial governor when his unit encountered the bomber.
