After years of petitioning for the re-consideration of an award, he was robbed of in the 1960s, a Black Vietnam veteran who served as one of the nation’s first African-Americans in the military to be included in the Army’s Special Forces will receive the nation’s highest honor for a serviceman.
On Monday, Feb. 13, President Joe Biden made the call that righted this 60-year historical wrong, calling retired U.S. Army Col. Paris Davis to share with him that he will now receive the United States Medal of Honor.
The White House took to social media to talk about the moment the president reached out to Davis. On Instagram, his team wrote, “Today, President Biden called Ret. U.S. Army Colonel Paris Davis to inform him that he will receive the Medal of Honor for his remarkable heroism during the Vietnam War.”
“This Medal of Honor will be awarded following recommendations by the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of Defense. @potus told Colonel Davis that he looks forward to hosting him at the White House soon for a medal presentation,” the post continued.
“The president told Col. Davis that he looks forward to hosting him at the White House soon for a medal presentation,” the White House press office said.
Two years ago, Davis appeared on CBS News and made public how he was on track to receive the award back in 1965, at the height of the civil rights movement and the dismantling of America’s segregationist system of Jim Crow, but the paperwork for the Medal of Honor mysteriously vanished.
Col. Davis said the call from the president “prompted a wave of memories of the men and women I served with in Vietnam — from the members of 5th Special Forces Group and other U.S. military units to the doctors and nurses who cared for our wounded.”
“I am so very grateful for my family and friends within the military and elsewhere who kept alive the story of A-team, A-321 at Camp Bong Son,” he continued. “I think often…
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