They gave a HUMAN the Galactic Service Medal!? | Sci-Fi Story | HFY Story

What the story is about

Private John William Ringgit, a young human soldier, is posthumously awarded the galaxy’s highest honor for holding off an enemy force long enough to save the last surviving members of an alien species. As a skeptical alien general learns about Ringgit’s actions and reads his diary, the story contrasts ceremony and military prestige with the realities of sacrifice on the battlefield.