Yale Jackson alum Major Nicholas Dockery MPP ’23 awarded the Medal of Honor

Maj. Nicholas Dockery ’23 MPP, a Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs alumnus who retired from active duty as a U.S. Special Forces officer in May, was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for combat valor, during a ceremony at the White House on June 18, 2026. The medal was awarded by President Trump on behalf of the U.S. Congress.  

The act honoring Dockery passed unanimously in the U.S. House of Representatives in February and the U.S. Senate in March. 

The award upgrades a Silver Star Dockery earned for his actions on Oct. 2, 2012, in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province, when he was a U.S. Army Second Lieutenant. On that day, Dockery repeatedly crossed open ground to rally his troops and reinforce Afghan allies after his unit was ambushed by Taliban fighters. He used his own body to shield a soldier from a grenade blast. And when he discovered that another soldier was missing, he located the unconscious sergeant in a nearby alley being dragged away by enemy fighters. Dockery shot and killed both enemy fighters and administered CPR and life-saving first aid to the soldier.  

He then made himself visible on the compound’s open roof to signal gunships, enabling the suppressive fire that allowed his unit to survive. Every soldier in the group sustained wounds. Dockery was wounded multiple times in combat over the course of his service. 

He went on to found the Nicholas Dockery Foundation, which focuses on building and scaling the organizations that use evidence-based approaches to experimental and alternative therapies to treat anxiety, depression, trauma, and suicidality.  

Dockery was named Military Times’ Soldier of the Year in 2022. At that time, he was the only U.S. Army officer to have received two Silver Stars for valor in the post-9/11 era. One was for the 2012 Kapisa province ambush and the second was for an event in Farayab province in 2018 — a 10-hour firefight that resulted in the death of over 100 enemy fighters. 

An Indiana native, he received a Master of Public Policy degree from the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs in 2023, fully funded by the General Wayne A. Downing Scholarship, a program that offers select U.S. Army officers the opportunity to attend graduate education programs at universities around the globe. “Major Dockery is an outstanding example of the kind of leader the Downing Scholarship brings to our school,” said James Levinsohn, the Charles W. Goodyear Professor of Global Affairs and dean of the Yale Jackson School. “His record of service and study reflects our mission to develop the talents of principled, capable practitioners of global affairs. We extend to Nick our congratulations on this well-deserved recognition.” 

Beyond his military career, Dockery completed a White House Fellowship and received the Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award, which recognizes top company-grade officers. In June 2026, he received the Soldier’s Medal for Heroism after rendering first aid to a severely injured stabbing victim in a hotel lobby and placing himself between the victim and the attacker to prevent further harm.  

Read the White House statement.