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Col. Paris Davis, who retired from the U.S. Army Special Forces, photographed this month in Alexandria, Va. While fighting in the Vietnam War in 1965, Mr. Davis performed a stunning series of heroic acts during an 18-hour battle, including dragging three wounded men to safety after he had been shot five times.Credit…Michael A. McCoy for The New York Times
Episode 2452 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Vietnam Vet Retired Army Col. Paris Davis and why he had to wait 56 years to receive a Congressional Medal of Honor for actions in the Vietnam War. The featured story appeared in The Dayton Daily News and was titled: Former Dayton man advocated for Medal of Honor recipient. It was submitted Thomas Gnau. He is a reporter for the Dayton Daily News who covers manufacturing, military affairs and business. He grew up a U.S. Navy dependent, living in two countries and five states before his 16th birthday. He graduated from Chaminade-Julienne High School and Wright State University. A Kettering resident, he is married to a teacher; he and his wife have a son and two daughters.
In his story he describes a situation that shows how persistence and determination can produce wonderful results. In 1965, Paris Davis was a captain in the U.S. Army Special Forces A Team leader stationed at Bon Son, South Vietnam. During an intense battle taking place at his camp, according to the Army Times, Davis repeatedly ran into an open rice paddy to rescue each member of his team, using his pinkie finger to fire his rifle after his hand was shattered by an enemy grenade. His entire team survived.
According to former Daytonian (and Green Beret) Ron Deis, 79, Davis refused the leave the battlefield until he had recovered all of his Special Forces team who were wounded on the battlefield. There were four of them, plus him.
Deis, 79, helped advance a recommendation for the award after an earlier two recommendations for Davis were, as Deis put it in an interview, “mysteriously lost.”
Davis, then an Army captain, was recommended for the Medal of Honor by his commanding officer for distinguishing himself on a June 1965 morning during a pre-dawn raid on a North Vietnamese army camp in Bong Son, the Associated Press reported.
Deis said he suspected that the first two nominations were lost or buried in Pentagon bureaucracy due to racism.
Listen to episode 2452 and discover more about Vietnam Vet Retired Army Col. Paris Davis and why he had to wait 56 years to receive a Congressional Medal of Honor for actions in the Vietnam War.
