Decades after risking his life to save his men, a Green Beret gets the Medal of Honor
Davis
called for artillery fire support despite being what's known as "danger close" to the target, with rounds landing within 100 feet of his own position. The fire mission gave him an opportunity to reach one of his wounded men, though Davis had been shot at least once and been wounded by a grenade by this point.
But the enemy continued their assault, and Davis was ordered by an Air Force colonel to pull out with whatever men he could save. In an interview on the Phil Donahue Show in 1969, Davis said there were as many as 700 enemy combatants trying to overrun his position.
Davis refused to leave when ordered to retreat
Davis had managed to save two of his men who had been wounded in a rice paddy, he recalled. But one man was still unaccounted for, and Davis refused to leave him behind.
"Sir, I'm just not going to leave. I still have an American out there," Davis recalled telling the colonel in
the Phil Donohue Show
interview.
Davis called for a medical evacuation to transport his wounded men out of the area and was shot in the leg while carrying one of the Green Berets to the chopper.
Late in the afternoon, Davis was able locate his missing man and get him to safety. Davis could tell the Green Beret was gravely wounded, but was unsure to what extent. He had spent more than 12 hours bleeding out in the rice paddy before Davis reached him
Reinforcements eventually arrived, allowing Davis, the three Americans and the surviving South Vietnamese soldiers to escape to safety.
For his unwavering courage and leadership in the face of near-certain death, Davis was awarded the Silver Star and
the Purple Heart.
But Davis's paperwork for the Medal of Honor was "inexplicably lost on multiple occasions," according to the Virginia Senate resolution backing his commendation. America was in the middle of the civil rights movement at the time, and Davis told CBS News in 2021 that race was a factor his paperwork disappearing.
After retiring from the Army in July of 1985 Davis started a newspaper in Virginia. He was admitted into the Ranger Hall of Fame in 2019.
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Friday, March 3, 2023 at 10:00 am