President Biden on Friday hailed “a true hero of our nation” by presenting the Medal of Honor to retired Green Beret Col. Paris Davis, one of the first Black officers to lead a Special Forces team in combat.
Davis, who received the highest military reward for valor for his heroics during the Vietnam War, “helped write the history of our nation,” Biden said.
“Paris, you are everything this medal means…and you’re everything our generation aspired to be. You’re everything our nation is at our best. Brave and big-hearted, determined and devoted. Selfless and steadfast. American.”
Downplaying the accolades, Davis stated, “You make the right choices. You want to get the right result”.
It certainly was the right result. One fateful night on June 18th 1965, Davis saved three men from enemy capture: American soldiers Robert Brown, John Reinberg and Billy Waugh.
Along with his small team of special force soldiers, the then Captain Paris Davis had been tasked with training a force of local volunteers in Bình Định province. He commanded a team of inexperienced South Vietnamese volunteers to fight the enemy.
Over the course of a 19-hour battle, Davis refused to leave the battlefield until all his men were out of harm’s way and sustained multiple gunshot and grenade-fragment wounds.
“Davis selflessly led a charge to neutralize enemy emplacements, called for precision artillery fire, engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the North Vietnamese,” his Medal of Honor citation read.
The Army explained his acts of bravery. Davis made it to the first soldier under a hail of enemy fire and was shot once again. Despite his grievous wounds and with no regard for his own safety, Davis saved the soldier and returned him to the company’s perimeter. Davis again broke cover, braving enemy fire, to retrieve the second soldier.
Crawling nearly 150 yards and wounded by enemy grenade fragments, he rescued the soldier and returned him to the company perimeter. Davis then directed the helicopter extraction of his wounded troops while refusing medical evacuation for himself. Instead, he directed tactical air and artillery fire, “ensuring the destruction of the enemy force.”
Davis said he was not afraid that night; he knew that his soldiers trusted him, and he would not let them down. “They knew that I wasn’t going to do anything that would put them in harm’s way.”
Shortly after the mission was complete, Davis’s commander said he was going to recommend Davis for the Medal of Honor. That did not materialize but he did receive the nation’s third-highest military decoration, the Silver Star. He was also recommended for the Medal of Honor in 1965, but his paperwork disappeared. A few years later, it was resubmitted, and then lost again.
His friend and fellow soldier, Ron Deis said he did not think the paperwork was lost by accident. “I think that because he was a Black leader of our team, I think those recommendations were thrown away.”
Despite the delay, Davis said he’s just happy to share this experience with his family; his two grandsons will be attending the White House ceremony with him.
