Gregory Korte, and Tom Vanden Brook

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Chief Special Warfare Operator Edward Byers was the second one through the door as his SEAL Team Six unit raided a Taliban hide-out where an American doctor was held hostage.

Inside, he saw an unknown man darting for the corner of the room. Not knowing whether the man was a militant grabbing a gun or a hostage diving for cover, Byers tackled him to the floor. When Byers heard the hostage identify himself, he threw himself on top of the doctor to protect him from gunfire, even as he pinned the enemy against the wall with his hand to the enemy's throat.

Byers' role in the rescue mission, a tightly held secret until Tuesday, has earned him the Medal of Honor, the White House said Tuesday. President Obama will present the highest military honor to Byers at the White House on Feb. 29.

Byers' commendation cites only "his courageous actions while serving as part of a team that rescued an American civilian being held hostage in Afghanistan, December 8-9, 2012." The awarding of the Medal of Honor provides a unique view into the mission in 2012 to rescue the American doctor and how the elite and secretive Navy SEAL unit operates.

How the SEALs pulled off the dramatic Taliban hostage rescue

Dilip Joseph was the medical director for a faith-based Colorado non-profit group establishing medical clinics in remote parts of Afghanistan when he was captured for ransom with his driver and translator. Four days later, having information that Joseph might be moved to Pakistan, U.S. commanders organized a rescue team, according to an unclassified summary of the mission obtained by USA TODAY.

Byers and the team walked four hours through the Afghan mountains to reach the Taliban compound, arriving shortly after midnight Dec. 9, 2012. Their mission relied on surprise and speed, and everyone on the team volunteered for the mission. "Trading personal security for speed of action was inherent to the success of this rescue mission," a Navy report said.

Inside, the hostage — going into his fifth day of captivity — heard dogs barking and sheep bleating outside the small stone-and-mud shack.

Two of his captors went out to investigate, then came back and conferred quietly, evidently seeing nothing outside.

Joseph had a runny nose and tried to clear it with a well-used handkerchief quietly, so as not to offend Afghan sensibilities about blowing one's nose in public. He was on the edge of sleep when he heard the first gunshots, he recounted in a 2014 book, Kidnapped by the Taliban: A Story of Terror, Hope, and Rescue by SEAL Team Six.

The SEAL team, about 80 feet from the building, had been spotted by a guard. The forward-most SEAL, Petty Officer 1st Class Nicolas Checque, shot at the guard, who escaped inside. Checque followed him and was shot.

Byers was second through the door. As he tackled an enemy fighter — adjusting his night-vision goggles even as he struggled — a teammate tried to locate the hostage.

"Is Dilip Joseph here?" the teammate shouted, according to Joseph's account. When he identified himself, one of the SEALs — now known to be Byers — immediately laid down on top of him to protect him from the fighting. Amid the gunfire, Byers calmly asked if he had been fed, if he could walk and if he had been mistreated.

Even as he did so, Byers pinned the last Taliban fighter to the wall, allowing his fellow team members to shoot and kill him, the Navy report said.

​Five Taliban fighters were killed that night. One Navy SEAL — the first one in the door, who the others called Nic — had been shot in the forehead.

As they waited for a helicopter 12 minutes away, the SEALs protected Joseph by "sandwiching" him between two team members, Joseph said. The one in front of Joseph kept calling to the one behind him, named "Ed," the only other name Joseph heard that night or since. That man, he now knows for the first time, was Byers.

"What are you doing?" asked the one in front.

"Praying for Nic," said the one named Ed. "Praying that he'll be OK."

Byers and other medics attempted to perform CPR on Checque during the ride to Bagram Airfield, where Checque, 28, was pronounced dead.

The mission has been controversial. In a report on SEAL Team Six last year, The New York Times highlighted discrepancies between Joseph's recollection and the official account. Joseph said that after the shooting stopped, he saw one of the Taliban fighters — a 19-year-old he called Wallakah, whom he had tried to bond with during his captivity — alive, unhurt and apparently subdued. When he returned inside to wait for the helicopter, Wallakah was dead. The Pentagon has disputed that account.

In an interview with USA TODAY, Joseph portrayed mixed feelings in an attempt to reconcile his overwhelming gratitude to the SEALs with the surgical, fatal nature of the operation. It's that contradiction — the compassion and selflessness of these highly trained special operations forces — that left the most lasting impression of SEAL Team Six.

"It was amazingly clinical how they handled the whole situation," Joseph said. "They’re just amazing. They’re very good at what they're trained to do. But they're human, too."

Joseph caught a rare glimpse of that humanity the next day, when he was granted special access to the "ramp" ceremony for Checque. As he watched the SEAL team solemnly load their fallen comrade's body onto a C-17 cargo plane, Joseph saw tears running down their cheeks.

"The strength of the Naval Special Warfare community is in its exceptional people. Senior Chief Ed Byers' actions on the battlefield reflect the highest ideals of our profession: bravery, selfless dedication to duty and above all, the highest level of commitment to protect the lives of others and the freedom for which our nation stands," said Rear Adm. Brian Losey, commander of Naval Special Warfare. "We are humbled by Senior Chief Byers' incredible example of service and are proud to call him teammate."

Only five Navy SEALs have ever been awarded the Medal of Honor, three in Vietnam and one each — posthumously — for actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Byers is the first living sailor to be awarded the Medal of Honor since 1998, when President Clinton awarded one retroactively for action in the Vietnam War.

Navy Sea, Air and Land Teams, known as SEALs, are one of the military's most elite, secretive and storied special operations forces units. It was a similar SEAL Team Six unit that found and killed Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Though the Pentagon did not confirm that Byers was a member of SEAL Team Six — a unit designation not officially acknowledged — Joseph said his rescuers gave him a rare SEAL military coin with the numeral VI on it.

Pentagon may upgrade hundreds of troops to possible Medals of Honor

Gen. Martin Dempsey, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "strongly recommended" Byers for the Medal of Honor in December 2014, according to a memo obtained by USA TODAY under the Freedom of Information Act.

The unusual delay in awarding the medal stems in part from a recent deployment that prevented him from traveling to Washington, according to a senior Defense official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Under a 1905 executive order by President Theodore Roosevelt, Medal of Honor recipients are ordered to Washington to have the medal presented by the president. Since 1984, every Medal of Honor ceremony has been at the White House, according to data from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

For Byers, the Medal of Honor caps an impressive array of military decorations, including five Bronze Stars with valor, two Purple Hearts, the Joint Service Commendation Medal with valor, three Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals (one with valor), two Combat Action Ribbons, three Presidential Unit Citations, two Joint Meritorious Unit Awards, two Navy Unit Commendations and five Good Conduct Medals.

Since being trained as a Navy SEAL and combat medic in 2003, he's had eight deployments as a Navy SEAL — seven in combat. Though the exact locations of those assignments are secret, his commendations suggest service in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

He was promoted to senior chief special warfare operator two weeks ago, a rank equivalent to master sergeant, according to Department of Defense records.

Edward Carl Byers Jr. was born in Toledo, Ohio, and graduated from Otsego High School in the small town of Tontogany, Ohio, in 1997. He joined the Navy in September 1998.

For years, most of what his hometown knew about his military service was a line in the church bulletin of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Toledo, asking parishioners to pray for those serving the country. Though others were listed by rank, the bulletin describes Byers only as a Navy serviceman.

Byers is the 11th living servicemember to be awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in Afghanistan. The White House said Tuesday that he would be joined by his family for the White House ceremony later this month.

He will graduate early this year from Norwich University, a Vermont military college, with a bachelor of science in strategic studies and defense analysis.