Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Pitts of Nashua will be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor during a ceremony at the White House today.
Pitts will be ninth living service member to receive the nation’s highest military honor for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Nine soldiers died and Pitts was among 27 wounded in July of 2008 in the Battle of Wanat, when hundreds of insurgents attacked an Army outpost in Afghanistan.
Despite serious injuries from shrapnel, Pitts continued to hold off enemy fighters, hurling grenades and manning a machine gun.
Pitts says he was simply doing his job.
“Trying to fight and impact the battle and me my brother’s keeper. And that’s just what it was about. It was about duty, it’s not about awards. It’s about the action and looking out for your brothers.”
Pitts has since retired from the military, and lives in Nashua with his wife and 1-year-old son.
