Major Nick Dockery, a former St. John’s Military School cadet from Salina, received the nation’s highest military honor from President Trump on Thursday during a ceremony at the White House. A 2003 graduate of the former St. John’s Military School in Salina, Dockery is the first Medal of Honor recipient in school history.
Then-Second Lieutenant Nicholas Dockery receives the Medal of Honor for acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty on October 2, 2012, while serving as a Platoon Leader, 2d Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 4th Infantry Division in Kapisa Province, Afghanistan.
On this day, a large and well-armed Taliban force ambushed Second Lieutenant Dockery’s platoon. Over the course of four hours, he fought and maintained contact with the enemy in extremely restricted urban terrain, personally risking his life on numerous occasions to protect and evacuate three wounded members of his platoon.
After consolidation and reorganization, he directed rotary wing aircraft in the defense against subsequent enemy counter-attacks from an exposed rooftop while his unit evacuated the wounded soldiers.