MOH For First Living Iraq Veteran
David Bellavia, who served as an Army staff sergeant, received the Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony on June 25, 2019. President Donald Trump gave the medal to Bellavia in recognition of his efforts to rescue rescuing his squad and clearing out a house full of Iraqi insurgents during the Battle of Fallujah, on November 10, 2004.
Before draping the medal around Bellavia’s neck, President Trump praised him for defying almost certain death to free squad members trapped by enemy fire.
“Alone in the dark, David killed four insurgents and seriously wounded the fifth,” Trump declared, “saving his soldiers and facing down the enemies of civilization.”
A NEW YORK NATIVE
Staff Sgt. David G. Bellavia was born, Nov. 10, 1975, in Buffalo, New York. The son of a successful dentist and the youngest of four boys, Bellavia grew up in western New York and attended Lyndonville Central High School and Houghton Academy.
Following his high school graduation in
