WASHINGTON — David Bellavia, who served as an Army staff sergeant, will receive the Medal of Honor for rescuing his squad and clearing out a house full of Iraqi insurgents during the Battle of Fallujah, the White House announced Monday.

The Medal of Honor is the nation's highest military award for valor. Bellavia will receive the medal on June 25.

The Second Battle of Fallujah, or Operation Phantom Fury, was the bloodiest battle of the Iraq War. Coalition forces entered the city in November 2004 to retake it from the rapidly growing Iraqi insurgency. Close to 100 American soldiers lost their lives during the month-and-a-half-long battle.

Bellavia's platoon had been ordered to clear out a block of 12 buildings when the soldiers were pinned down during the fighting, which was taking place at night.

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Rather than put one of his own men at risk, Bellavia grabbed an M249 light machine gun and provided covering fire for his fellow soldiers to escape. A Bradley Fighting Vehicle then arrived to support the soldiers but was unable to rotate its turret to fire into a house full of insurgents.

It seemed like they might not be able to proceed.

Then, Bellavia ran into the house with an M16, where he helped clear out the entire house and killed four insurgents inside. In one dramatic moment, Bellavia entered a room full of propane tanks and plastic explosive, where, for fear of setting off an explosion, he fought an insurgent in hand-to-hand combat before wrestling him to the ground and stabbing him in the collarbone.

"This is not a John Rambo moment. I’m really scared," Bellavia recalled in a later Army oral history interview.

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Bellavia killed one more insurgent on the roof, who then fell off the building. He continued to fight until joined by other members of his platoon.

According to the White House, Bellavia enlisted in the Army in 1999, and first served in Kosovo before deploying to Iraq in 2004. He was discharged from the Army a year later, in 2005, and now co-hosts a daily radio talk show in Buffalo, N.Y. He also serves as the co-founder of Vets for Freedom, a conservative veterans advocacy group.

Michael Ware, a TIME Magazine journalist who'd been detailed with Bellavia's unit, wrote in Bellavia's initial Medal of Honor nomination that "SSG Bellavia single-handedly saved three squads of his Third Platoon that night, risking his own life by allowing them to break contact and reorganize. He then entered and cleared an insurgent strong point, killing four insurgents and mortally wounding another."

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Bellavia is the first living veteran of the Iraq War to receive the honor. He was previously awarded a Silver Star for his actions.

Over the past several years, the Pentagon has conducted a review of valor awards that has resulted in the upgrading of awards for many service members. Military.com notes that Bellavia's upgrade is the "third for the Army and the fifth overall" as a result of the review so far.

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