After President Obama bestowed the prestigious Congressional Medal of Honor upon Army Capt. Florent “Flo” Groberg, the Afghanistan veteran told the crowd that the medal didn’t belong to him at all.

“This medal belongs to the true heroes,” Groberg said. “It also belongs to their families, true heroes who live with every day missing one of the members of their families.”

Those true heroes were four soldiers killed in the same 2012 ambush that earned Groberg the award.

During his second deployment to Afghanistan, Groberg was serving on a personal security detail with Army Command Sgt. Major Kevin Griffin, Army Major Thomas Kennedy, Air Force Major Walter Gray and U.S. Agency for International Development foreign service officer Ragaei Abdelfattah. On Aug. 8, 2012, they left their base in Jalalabad with 23 other American and Afghan personnel to meet with a provincial governor.

Groberg spotted a man in dark clothing walking backwards towards the detail and immediately tackled the stranger to get him away from the other troops. He quickly realized that the man was rigged with explosives underneath his clothing.

“At that moment, Flo did something extraordinary,” Obama said at the Medal of Honor ceremony. “He grabbed the bomber by the vest and kept pushing him away. In those seconds, he had the instincts and the courage to do what was needed.”

Despite the risk to his life, Groberg and his teammate Sgt. Andrew Mahoney pushed the suicide bomber away from their friends until the bomb detonated. Both men were blown backwards 15 feet by the blast, and Groberg ruptured his eardrum and broke his leg. The four heroes Groberg memorialized in his Medal of Honor speech also perished in this first blast.

Interrupting the first suicide bomber’s plan had a ripple effect on what was supposed to be a well-orchestrated terrorist attack. Detonating the first suicide bomber’s vest away from the group saved many lives, but it also panicked a second, unseen bomber who was not yet in position. This bomber detonated his vest early.

Though the encounter claimed four American lives, Groberg’s selfless heroism saved two dozen more.

After 33 surgeries, Groberg has retired from the military and now works for the Department of Defense.

Towards the end of his speech, the president acknowledged that valor almost always is coupled with tragedy.

“The truth is, Flo says that day was the worst day of his life,” Obama said. “And that is the stark reality behind these Medal of Honor ceremonies — that for all the valor we celebrate, and all the courage that inspires us, these actions were demanded amid some of the most dreadful moments of war. That’s precisely why we honor heroes like Flo — because on his very worst day, he managed to summon his very best.”

Watch the entire ceremony below.