Hegseth upgrades Abbey Gate Marines' valor awards after 5-year delay: 'Those days are over'

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth upgraded valor awards Wednesday for three Marines who risked their lives to save others during the deadly Abbey Gate bombing, saying their original award submissions were "inappropriately" downgraded after one of the darkest days of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. "For half a decade, this building allowed bureaucratic caution, or maybe politics, to stand in the way of proper recognition," Hegseth said during a Pentagon ceremony marking exactly five years since