WASHINGTON —Nearly 60 years after he was recommended for the country's highest military decoration, retired Colonel Paris Davis, one of the first black officers to command a special forces team in combat, was presented with the Medal of Honor for bravery during the Vietnam War on Friday.

After a crowded White House ceremony, a grateful Davis emphasized the benefits of honor rather than the ill effects of delay, saying, "It's in America's interest that we do these things." He thanked President Joe Biden, who wore a medal around his neck, and said, "God bless you, God bless everyone, God bless America."


The 83-year-old Virginia resident received late recognition after the recommendation for his medal was lost, resubmitted, and then lost again.

Advocates painstakingly recreated and resubmitted the paperwork in 2016, more than a half-century after Davis risked his life to save some of his men under fire.

Davis was dubbed a "true hero" by Biden for risking his life amid heavy enemy fire to rescue injured soldiers under his command. "Sir, I'm just not going to leave," Davis said when a superior ordered him to safety, according to Biden. "There is still an American out there." He returned to the firefight to help an injured medic.

"You embody everything this medal represents," Biden told Davis.

"You exemplify everything our country is at its best." Davis, according to Biden, should have received the award years ago; he described segregation in the United States when he returned home and questioned the delay in awarding him the medal.

"The paperwork was never processed," Biden explained.

” Davis does not dwell on the delayed honor, and he wonders why it took decades for it to arrive. "Right now, I'm overwhelmed," he told the media on the eve of the medal ceremony on Thursday.

"You're not thinking about this moment when you're fighting," Davis explained. "You're just trying to get through it."

“That moment” stretched over nearly 19 hours and two days in mid-June 1965.

During a pre-dawn raid on a North Vietnamese army camp in the village of Bong Son in Binh Dinh province, Davis, then a captain and commander with the 5th Special Forces Group, engaged in nearly continuous combat.

He engaged in hand-to-hand combat with North Vietnamese soldiers, directed precision artillery fire, and prevented the capture of three American soldiers—all while suffering gunshot and grenade fragment wounds.

According to the Army Times, Davis repeatedly ran into an open rice paddy to rescue members of his team. "That word 'gallantry' isn't used very often these days," Biden said. "However, there is no better word to describe Paris."

Davis, who was born in Cleveland and retired in 1985 as a colonel, now resides in Alexandria, Virginia, not far from Washington. He claims that the wait in no way diminishes the honor.

"If you have to wait that long, it intensifies the situation," he said. It's as if you were promised an ice cream cone. The paperwork recommending Davis for the highest military honor vanished, despite his commanding officer's recommendation.

His recommendation for the Medal of Honor vanished, according to Davis' team, but he eventually received the Silver Star, the third-highest combat decoration in the military.

"I believe that someone purposely lost the paperwork," Ron Deis, a junior member of Davis' team in Bong Son, told in an interview.

He claimed to have known Davis had been nominated for the Medal of Honor soon after the 1965 battle and to have wondered for years why it hadn't been given.

He discovered nine years ago that a second nomination had been made "and that, too, was somehow lost." Deis added, "But I don't think they were lost."

"I think they were thrown away on purpose." According to Army officials, Davis' case does not involve any evidence of racism.

Maj. Gen. Patrick Roberson, deputy commanding general, of U.S. Army Special Operations Command, told the media, "We're here to celebrate the fact that he received the award, which has been a long time coming."

We, the Army, haven't been able to find anything that would indicate racism, you know. Roberson said, "We can't know that."

Early in 2021, Christopher Miller, who was acting defense secretary at the time, requested a quick review of Davis' situation. Later that year, he argued in a column that giving Davis the Medal of Honor would correct an injustice. "In our country, there are some issues that transcend partisanship," Miller wrote.

" The Davis case satisfies that requirement. Regan Davis Hopper, a mother of two teenage sons and Davis' daughter, revealed to the AP that she only became aware of her father's bravery in 2019.

“I try not to think about that." "I try not to let that weigh me down and make me lose the thrill and excitement of the moment,” Hopper said. “I think that’s most important—to just look ahead and think about how exciting it is for America to meet my dad for the first time. "I'm just proud of him.”