The first thing Kevin Gibson did after returning to his house, torn apart by a powerful tornado Monday, was pull an American flag and a temporary flagpole from the corner of his partially standing garage.Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., on Monday will receive the Pentagon’s highest honor given to a private citizen.
The Department of Defense will present its Medal for Distinguished Public Service to Lugar and former Democratic senator Sam Nunn of Georgia at a 2:15 p.m. ceremony at the National Defense University at Fort McNair.
At 4 p.m., President Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta will speak at NDU about the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which has been credited with eliminating thousands of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in the former Soviet Union since the program's inception in 1992.
The award presentation is scheduled to be carried live on www.pentagonchannel.mil.
Lugar will leave the Senate at year’s end after six terms.
