First Sgt. Thomas P. Payne peered through his night-vision goggles in the predawn hours of Oct. 22, 2015, midway through a daring prisoner rescue in northern Iraq. A fellow soldier had already been shot, and enemy fire roared just 30 yards away.

Payne, now a sergeant major, received the highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor, in a White House ceremony Friday for his role in the operation to free about 70 captives, a mission in which he led many out of the compound and went back in for one last man.

"He wouldn't leave," President Trump said, describing Payne's efforts. "He was the last man out."

Payne, 36, is the first service member to receive the award for actions in the fight against the Islamic State and the first living Delta Force recipient since the counterterrorism unit's creation in the late 1970s.

Trump presented the award to Payne during a day of Sept. 11 commemorations. Payne enlisted months after the terrorist attacks and has served on 17 deployments, including to Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa - nearly one tour a year in elite units that have absorbed bloody costs of those fights.

The Army has said the mission was one of the largest hostage rescue operations in history. It was partially captured on the helmet camera of a Kurdish soldier, which shows Payne in a doorway leading a stream of captives out before going back to look for other survivors.

"I don't consider myself a recipient," Payne told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday ahead of the award ceremony. "I consider myself a guardian."

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Soldier receives Medal of Honor after helping save 70 captives from execution by Islamic State(https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/09/11/medal-of-honor-payne-trump/)