President Joe Biden bestowed the Medal of Honor on one of the nation’s first Black special forces officers in the US Army, who struggled for decades to earn recognition for his actions saving fellow soldiers during a grueling, day-long firefight in Vietnam.
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden bestowed the Medal of Honor on one of the nation’s first Black special forces officers in the US Army, who struggled for decades to earn recognition for his actions saving fellow soldiers during a grueling, day-long firefight in Vietnam.
Paris Davis, 83, was awarded the nation’s highest military honor at the White House on Friday after the Pentagon twice said it lost the paperwork nominating him for the award. The case has been widely seen as an example of discrimination faced by Black soldiers in the years after the armed services were integrated.
“He never lost faith, which I found astounding,” Biden said.
Biden heralded Davis’s decision to pursue a career in the Green Berets, despite warnings that the largely White special forces group could be discriminatory. Davis was awarded the medal for his actions in Vietnam, where the then-captain returned multiple times to the battlefield to drag wounded soldiers to safety – despite being shot twice himself.
He continued to engage in the battle until all members of his company were extracted, the White House said.
“You are everything our nation is at our best: brave and big-hearted, determined and devoted, selfless and steadfast,” Biden said.
Davis, an Arlington County, Virginia, resident, retired as a colonel. He received a Silver Star, Bronze Star Medal with “V” device, a Purple Heart with one Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster and the Air Medal with “V” device. The so-called “V” device denotes acts of valor or heroism.
(Updates with background throughout)
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