The U.S. Marine who was shot in the leg during the July 16 terrorist attack in Chattanooga accepted the Purple Heart medal during a ceremony today.
Sgt. DeMonte Cheeley was injured when 24-year-old Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire on a military recruiting center on Lee Highway just before 11 a.m. on July 16. Cheeley and a handful of other Marines inside the storefront office fled out a back door.
Abdulazeez then drove across town to the U.S. Naval and Marine Reserve Center on Amnicola Highway, where he again attacked. There, Abdulazeez killed four Marines and mortally wounded a U.S. Navy sailor.
"I can't take anything away from the five brave men who paid the ultimate sacrifice," Cheeley said in a release today. "I will wear this in honor of those men and every recipient before me. I can only move forward from here and continue to recruit the future of the Marine Corps."
The Marine Corps announced in December Cheeley and all five men who died will be awarded Purple Hearts. That announcement came the same day the director of the FBI officially said Abdulazeez was "inspired and motivated by" a foreign terrorist organization - a move that cleared the way for the award.
The Purple Heart is a combat award, but it can be given to members of the armed forces who are killed or wounded in domestic attacks - if the attacks were inspired by foreign terrorist organizations.
On Jan. 14, the family of Randall Smith, the sailor killed in the attack, accepted the Purple Heart on his behalf.