WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 60 years after he was recommended for the nation’s highest military award, retired Col. Paris Davis, one of the first Black officers to lead a Special Forces team in combat, received the Medal of Honor on Friday for his bravery. in the Vietnam War.
After a packed White House ceremony, a grateful Davis emphasized the positives of the honor over the negatives of the delay, saying, “It’s in America’s best interest that we do things like this.”
Thanking President Joe Biden, who placed a ribbon with a medal around his neck, he said, “God bless you, God bless all, God bless America.”
The belated recognition for the 83-year-old Virginia native came after the recommendation for his medal was lost, resubmitted — and then lost again.
It wasn’t until 2016 — half a century after Davis risked his life to save some of his men under fire — that advocates painstakingly created and resubmitted the paperwork.
Biden described Davis as a “true hero” for risking his life amid intense enemy fire to haul wounded soldiers under his command to safety. When a superior ordered him to safety, according to Biden, Davis replied, “Sir, I’m not just going to leave. I still have an American there.” He returns to the fight to retrieve an injured medic.
“You are everything this medal means,” Biden told Davis. “You are all of our country’s best. Brave and big-hearted, determined and devoted, selfless and steadfast.”
Biden said Davis should have received the honor years ago, describing the isolation of the US upon his return home and questioning the delay in awarding him the medal.
“In no way were the papers processed,” Biden said. “Not just once. But twice.”
Davis didn’t mind the delayed honor and said he didn’t know why decades had to pass before it came.
“Now I’m overwhelmed,” he told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday, the eve of the medal ceremony.
“When you’re fighting, you don’t think about this moment,” Davis said. “You’re just trying to get through the moment.”
“That time” took about 19 hours and two days in mid-June 1965.
Davis, a captain and commander of the 5th Special Forces Group, fought in near-continuous combat during a pre-dawn attack on a North Vietnamese army camp in Bong Son village in Binh Dinh province. .
He fought the North Vietnamese, called for accurate artillery fire and prevented the capture of three American soldiers – all while suffering wounds from gunshots and grenade fragments. He used his pinkie finger to fire his rifle after his hand was broken by an enemy grenade, according to reports.
Davis repeatedly ran into an open rice field to save his team members, according to ArmyTimes. His entire team was saved.
“That word ‘gallantry’ is not used much today,” Biden said. “But I can’t think of a better word to describe Paris.”
Davis, from Cleveland, retired in 1985 with the rank of colonel and now lives in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside of Washington. Biden called him a few weeks ago to deliver the news.
He said that waiting in any way would diminish the reputation.
“It raises the bar, if you have to wait that long,” he said. “It’s like someone promised you an ice cream cone. You know what it looks like, what it smells like. You just didn’t lick it.”
Davis’ commanding officer recommended him for the highest military honor, but the papers were lost. He was eventually awarded the Silver Star, the military’s third-highest combat medal, but members of Davis’ team argued that the color of his skin was a factor in losing his recommendation for the Medal of Honor.
“I believe someone intentionally lost the papers,” Ron Deis, a junior member of Davis’ team at Bong Son, told the AP in a separate interview.
Deis, now 79, helped compile the recommendation that was submitted in 2016. He said he learned Davis was recommended for the Medal of Honor shortly after the war in 1965, and he spent years wondering why it was not given. Nine years later he learned that a second nomination had been submitted “and that too had somehow, quote, been lost.”
“But I don’t believe they’re lost,” Deis said. “I believe they were rejected on purpose. They were rejected because he was Black, and that’s the only conclusion I can come to.
Army officials say there is no evidence of racism in Davis’ case.
“We’re here to celebrate the fact that he got the award, it’s been a long time coming,” Maj. gen. Patrick Roberson, deputy commanding general, US Army Special Operations Command, told the AP. “We, the Army, you know, we’ve never seen anything that says, ‘Hey, this is racism.'”
“We’ll never know that,” Roberson said.
In early 2021, Christopher Miller, then the acting defense secretary, ordered an expedited review of Davis’ case. He argued in an opinion column later that year that awarding Davis the Medal of Honor would address an injustice.
“Few issues in our country transcend partisanship,” Miller wrote. “The Davis case meets that standard.”
Davis’ daughter, Regan Davis Hopper, a mother of two teenage sons, told the AP that she only learned of her father’s heroism in 2019. Like her, she said he tried not to dwell on his disappointment at how the situation was handled.
“I try not to think about that. I try not to let that overwhelm me and make me lose the excitement and the excitement of the season,” Hopper said. “I think that’s the most important thing, looking forward and thinking how exciting it will be for America to meet my dad for the first time. I’m just proud of him.”
