Bethesda Medal of Honor Recipient Honored by Orioles

BETHESDA, MD — Maryland is saluting its adopted son, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Capt. Florent Groberg, a Bethesda high school graduate, this weekend.

First, Groberg will be honored by the Baltimore Orioles Sunday, June 5, during the home game against the New York Yankees.

And he will deliver the keynote address at his alma mater, Walter Johnson High School, during Friday’s graduation ceremonies.

Groberg, now medically retired, received the Medal of Honor from President Obama during a White House ceremony in November 2015. The medal is the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force which can be bestowed upon a military member.

“He had the instincts and courage to do what was needed,” Obama said of Groberg.

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The Maryland soldier insists he’s not a hero for jumping on a suicide bomber. The French-born Army officer who became a U.S. citizen the year he graduated from high school in Bethesda, repeatedly shoved the bomber to get him away from the group of Americans and Afghans headed to a meeting with the provincial governor.

He was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and again in 2012. Groberg now lies in the National Capital Region and is a civilian employee of the Department of Defense.

SEE ALSO:

• Obama: Medal of Honor Recipient Summoned 'His Very Best'
• 'I Lost Four of My Brothers:' Medal of Honor Recipient

At the Orioles game, Groberg will be featured during an in-game ceremony at the end of the fifth inning as part of the Birdland Community Heroes program

Tradition dictates that as part of the celebration, the classic song played during the seventh-inning stretch will be "God Bless America."

Groberg spent nearly three years at Walter Reed Medical Center undergoing 33 surgeries and rehabilitation to keep his leg. While he lost nearly half the calf muscle in the leg from the bomb blast, he plans to run again as did while attending the University of Maryland.

Obama joked that while Groberg is not yet running, he is “putting the hurt on” the rehab center’s CrossFit routine.

“For all the valor we celebrate, all the courage we honor, these actions were required by some of the most dreadful moments of war,” the president said during the medal ceremony.

»Photo of Army Capt. Florent Groberg shown after receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor, from NBC Washington