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Army Sgt. 1st Class Melvin Morris earned the Medal of Honor in 2014 for actions he took in Vietnam on Sept. 17, 1969.
Retired U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Melvin Morris, Medal of Honor recipient, wears his 55-year old Green Beret, Jan. 31, 2017, at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla. Morris’s Green Beret has never left his side since the day President John F. Kennedy visited Fort Bragg and authorized U.S. Army Special Forces to wear Green Berets. (U.S. Air Force photo by Phil Sunkel)
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Episode 2750 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Army SFC Class Melvin Morris and his Congressional Medal of Honor award. The featured story comes from The U.S. Department of Defense website and was titled: Medal of Honor Monday: Army SFC Class Melvin Morris. It was submitted by Katie Lange, the outstanding writer for DOD News.
Lange, in her story, reported that In 1969, Army Sgt. 1st Class Melvin Morris waded through a blistering firefight in Vietnam to rescue a fallen comrade and keep crucial information out of the enemy’s hands. He was injured three times during the fight, but after recovering, went on with his military career. Forty-four years later, the initial accolades Morris received for his actions were upgraded to the Medal of Honor.
Lange added this about Melvin Morris, he was born Jan. 7, 1942, in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, a rural community east of Oklahoma City. His father, John, was a handyman who found work when he could, while his mother was a homemaker. Morris said when he was young, he enjoyed fishing, hunting and hanging out with his three brothers and four sisters.
There weren’t many Black men in the Oklahoma Army National Guard in the late 1950s, but the service was recruiting, so in 1959, Morris signed up. After about a year, he requested to join the active-duty Army. He attended artillery and airborne training before deciding he wanted to join the newly created Special Forces. He started that training in 1961, and by September 1963, was a fully qualified Green Beret.
While he was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Morris met Mary Nesbitt, whom he married three months later. The pair went on to have two sons and a daughter before he volunteered to go to Vietnam in February 1969.
Listen to episode 2750 and discover more about Army SFC Class Melvin Morris and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.
