“I want him to be remembered as the best father that anyone could ask for, and also at the same time being the best soldier that anyone could ask for,
U. S. Army soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment are standing in formation at Fort Drum in Jefferson County, New York. Soon they will say goodbye to loved ones as they deploy overseas once more.
In August 2006, John and Elaine Atkins of Bozeman, Montana, were sitting in Fort Drum’s bleachers, staring at the multitude of soldiers set to deploy to war-torn Iraq as a part of the Bush administration’s strategy to surge the number of American forces on the ground and attempt to secure the volatile Iraqi regions of Baghdad and Al Anbar Province.
“We went to Fort Drum for the deployment ceremony, where they case the flags, sitting in the stands and looking at the troops on the field,” said Elaine Atkins in a recent video produced by the Defense Department. “A parent always realizes that some of them are not going to come back,” she said as her eyes watered.
Her son, Staff Sergeant Travis W. Atkins, 31, was among those who did not return alive. But the three others whom he gave his life for did after Atkins wrestled with an insurgent rigged with explosives.
President Donald Trump awarded the Medal of Honor to Atkins posthumously on Wednesday in the East Room of the White House. His son, Trevor Oliver, of Coon Rapids, Minnesota, accepted the award on his behalf.
President Donald Trump presents a posthumous Medal of Honor for U. S. Army Staff Sergeant Travis Atkins, to his surviving son Trevor Oliver, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on March 27,2019. On June 1,2007 while serving in Iraq, Atkins tackled a suicide bomber, shielding three of his fellow soldiers from the explosion, but resulting in his own death SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
The mood was somber in the East Room as Trump presented the nation’s highest award for combat valor to Atkins‘ family amid other Medal of Honor recipients, current and former uniformed service members and congressional leaders.
„Today the name of Staff Sergeant Travis Atkins will be etched alongside the names of America’s bravest warriors and written into America’s heart,” Trump said during the ceremony.
