WASHINGTON (KMTV) — On Thursday, President Joe Biden signed a bill to posthumously award the Congressional Gold Medal to Marine Corporal Daegan Page.
Cpl. Page, a graduate of Millard High School in Omaha, was one of 13 service members killed in action on Aug. 26 in Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan. Page and his fellow soldiers were conducting non-combative evacuative operations to protect civilians.
The bill was co-sponsored by U.S. Representative Cindy Axne (D-Iowa), the district of Page's native Red Oak, Iowa. Axne co-sponsored an amendment to establish a memorial for the 13 servicemen, during a vote to pass defense policy legislation in September.
The Congressional Gold Medal has been awarded less than 200 times since the first Medal was issued to George Washington in 1776, through to the most recent previous awards in August this year that included U.S. Capitol police who protected the Capitol on Jan. 6 as well as to the first African Americans deployed overseas during WWI.
In September, Cpl. Page was buried with full military honors during his funeral at Omaha National Cemetery.
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