Small firm in Zinke’s town wins P.R. bid
WASHINGTON— President Trump on Monday turned a Medal of Honor ceremony for a Vietnam-era Army medic who risked his life to help wounded comrades into a tutorial for the boy and girl who came to watch their grandfather be enshrined “into the history of our nation.”
Trump told retired Army Capt. Gary Rose’s grandchildren — Kaitlyn and Christian — that the medal he was being given is “the award given to America’s bravest heroes.” With that, a military aide read a citation recounting the acts of heroism the now 70-year-old Rose performed on Sept. 11. 1970, as the only medic for 136 men who embarked on a mission designed to keep the North Vietnamese from funneling weapons along the Ho Chi Minh Trail to use against American troops.
Throughout the four-day mission, Trump said, “Mike rescued those in distress without any thought for his own safety,” including in one instance by using his body to shield a wounded soldier from the rat-tat-tat of machine gunfire while treating the man and then carrying him to safety.
A helicopter sent to extract the men was downed by enemy fire. Rose was thrown from the helicopter before it hit ground, but raced to the crash site less than a mile from where it had taken off and pulled one man after another from the smoldering wreckage, Trump said. Another helicopter rescued them. Rose, covered in blood by the time he reached the base, refused treatment until all of his men had received care.
“In every action during those four days, Mike valiantly fought for the life of his comrades, even if it meant the end of his own life,” Trump said. A MONTANA energy company that had only two full-time employees when Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico has been tasked with restoring the power grid in the cash-strapped territory, according to a report Monday.
Whitefish Energy Holdings LLC snagged the daunting $300 million contract from the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority Board of Governors and has been filling its workforce with at least 280 short-term contractors since the storm’s Sept. 20 landfall, according to The Washington Post.
Maria wrecked at least 80% of the power grid and will be the company’s biggest job yet. It landed a recent contract to replace and upgrade just 5 miles of Arizona’s transmission lines.
The business is based in Whitefish, where Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was raised. A spokesman for the cabinet member said he had no role in securing the work for the company, according to the newspaper.