D-Day Veteran Receives Congressional Gold Medal

When 22-year-old John C. Raaen, Jr. made his landing on Omaha Beach in 1944, he was one of more than 150,000 Allied soldiers. Today, at 103, he is the last surviving U.S. Army Ranger officer who participated in the initial D-Day assault.

In a ceremony at The Mayflower at Winter Park, Major General Raaen, United States Army (Retired) was recently presented with the Congressional Gold Medal, a rare accolade representing Congress’s highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and extraordinary contributions to the country. The special medal, which acknowledges the service of U.S. Army Rangers in World War II, was authorized by Congress and signed into law by President Biden in 2022.

First awarded to George Washington in 1776, the Congressional Gold Medal has been awarded fewer than 200 times in our nation’s history. Other honorees have included the likes of Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, Jr., Walt Disney, Arnold Palmer, Jackie Robinson, Neil Armstrong, and Rosa Parks, as well as groups such as the Navajo Code Talkers and the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), among others.

Maj. Gen. Raaen was unable to travel earlier this summer when other surviving members of the WWII Ranger battalions were honored on the anniversary of D-Day at a ceremony on Capitol Hill. However, thanks to the combined efforts of the Descendants of World War II Rangers and fellow veterans at The Mayflower, he instead received the prestigious honor here at home, presented to him by former Representative, Senator and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

In addition to the Congressional Gold Medal, a civilian honor, Maj. Gen. Raaen has received many military awards over the course of his 36 years of Army service. On D-Day, he earned the Combat Infantryman Badge and the Silver Star, the military’s third-highest honor for heroism in combat. Later, he went on to serve in Vietnam, Korea, and at the Pentagon, among others, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Army Commendation Medal, and the Bronze Star.

After retiring in 1979, Maj. Gen. Raaen continued to serve his country by sharing and preserving the history of D-Day and World War II. Interviewed by more than two dozen war historians, he provided oral histories for the BBC and Smithsonian Channel. Using official war documents and his own letters written just weeks after D-Day, he also authored INTACT, a first-hand account of the invasion, which tells the story of the 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion as they helped secure Omaha Beach.

To learn more about Maj. Gen. Raaen, you can visit his Wikipedia page, watch his video biography, read coverage of his story from AARP and Orlando Sentinel (two stories, here and here), or watch his two-part video interview with the American Veterans Center and video interview with Growing Bolder.

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