SANTA CLAUS, Ga. — For nearly two years, a deadly ambush of American soldiers in Niger has spawned investigations, recriminations and reprimands. On Wednesday, it resulted in the awarding of one of the military’s highest honors for acts of valor.

As an Army captain read the award citation for Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright, the lights flickered and a summer storm rolled through this small southern Georgia town. A general spoke about the definition of a hero, and then Sergeant Wright’s father cleared his throat, gestured to the two photographs beside him and said, “This is my son.”

“He was my John Wayne,” the father, Arnold Wright, told the crowd in the community center.

The Army posthumously awarded Sergeant Wright the Silver Star for his actions on Oct. 4, 2017, when his 11-man Army Special Forces team and more than 30 Nigerien soldiers were ambushed by Islamic State fighters outside the village of Tongo Tongo in northwestern Niger.

The medal, the third-highest military honor that recognizes singular acts of valor and heroism, was one of nine awards given to members of Sergeant Wright’s Special Forces team. It was, in many ways, a fitting coda to the months of investigations the ambush generated.