U.S. President Truman confers nation's highest award on 28 Army men. U.S. President Harry S.

U.S. President Truman confers nation's highest award on 28 Army men. U.S. President Harry S. Truman bestows the Congressional Medal of Honor on Sergeant Ralph G. Neppel, 21, former farm worker from the midwestern state of Iowa, whose legs were severed below the knee during action in Germany in December 1944. The ceremony, in which 27 other Army men, many of whom were badly wounded, also received the nation's highest award in the largest mass ceremony of its kind in u.S. history, occurred August 23, 1945 in the White House, Executive Mansion in Washington, the U.S. capital. Before a group of military officers and civilians, including the families of the honored soldiers, President Truman made the awards after citations for their deeds of heroism were read by Major General Edward E. Witsell, acting Adjutant General.