Obama awards 6 Purple Hearts

The White House says President Barack Obama awarded six Purple Hearts to service members on Wednesday.

The commander in chief met with 22 service members during a midday visit to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., just outside Washington. Twenty-one of the military personnel served in Afghanistan; the other served in Iraq.

Obama also visited with medical center staff and families of the wounded.

Such visits by the president are closed to media coverage.