Gunnery Sgt. Jonathan Gifford was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, the highest decoration bestowed by the Department of the Navy and second highest decoration for valor, during a ceremony at Stone Bay aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, June 17. General John M. Paxton, Jr., the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, and Maj. Gen. Mark A. Clark, commanding general, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, spoke during the ceremony and then presented the award to Gifford’s wife and children. “Acts of extraordinary heroism, those of conspicuous gallantry, are acts that cannot be planned, ordered or demanded. They are acts given fully and willingly by a person without regard to themselves; they are acts done for the man to their left, and the man to their right and for the mission” said Clark. “Today we are here to honor such a man.” - Gunnery Sgt. Jonathan Gifford was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, the highest decoration bestowed by the Department of the Navy and second highest decoration for valor, during a ceremony at Stone Bay aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, June 17.
General John M. Paxton, Jr., the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, and Maj. Gen. Mark A. Clark, commanding general, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, spoke during the ceremony and then presented the award to Gifford’s wife and children.
“Acts of extraordinary heroism, those of conspicuous gallantry, are acts that cannot be planned, ordered or demanded. They are acts given fully and willingly by a person without regard to themselves; they are acts done for the man to their left, and the man to their right and for the mission” said Clark. “Today we are here to honor such a man.”