President Donald Trump awarded Army Chief Warrant Officer Eric Slover the Congressional Medal of Honor during his State of the Union Address on Tuesday, showcasing Slover’s role in a special operation that led to the capture of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3.
Slover was attached to a special operations element that followed in the wake of a stealthy air attack to reduce enemy positions in and around key infrastructure installations in Caracas.
In the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, Jan. 3, the U.S. military carried out a wave of airstrikes, awaking the residents of the Venezuelan capital to large explosions and thick plumes of smoke, limiting the Venezuelan military’s air defense capabilities of Russian-Chinese origins.
Slover was the lead pilot of a separate air element, captaining a CH-47 Chinook with U.S. special operators on board, and was preparing to land the aircraft on the roof of a heavily protected military compound in Central Caracas.
Then-President Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were being guarded by Cuban and Venezuelan security forces, 32 of whom were killed by U.S. forces, when Slover’s element took machine-gun fire, ultimately wounding Slover in his left leg while attempting to insert themselves into the compound.
Slover was struck four times in the leg, remarked the president during last night’s speech on Capitol Hill, nearly requiring a medical amputation after returning aboard a U.S. naval vessel docked in the South Caribbean.
With his wife, Amy, by his side, Slover was honored by the U.S. president, who read off the citation before members of Congress:
“In recognition of Eric’s actions above and beyond the call of duty,” Trump said, “I would now like to ask General Jonathan Braga to present Chief Warrant Officer Slover with our nation’s highest military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor.”
