President Joe Biden on Friday awarded the Medial of Honor to retired black Army Col. Paris Davis for his heroic service during the Vietnam War – after paperwork recommending him for the honor mysteriously ‘vanished’ in 1965 – and then again four years later.
At the start of his remarks at the White House, Biden called awarding the nation’s highest military honor ‘the most consequential day since I’ve been president.’
Davis sat to the president’s right, staring ahead as Biden detailed his heroism and his service in a military that had only recently desegregated.
‘Paris helped write the history of our nation. And this year, we celebrate the 75th anniversary of our first fully integrated armed forces,’ he said. ‘Paris Davis will still stand alongside the nations pioneering heroes.’
‘Paris, you are everting this medal means — I mean everything this medal means,’ he said. ‘You are everything our nation is at our best.’
President Joe Biden awards the Medal of Honor to retired Army Col. Paris Davis for his heroism during the Vietnam War
Davis, a Vietnam veteran, was among the first black officers to lead Green Beret forces.
He stood outside the White House after the ceremony to speak to reporters. He was asked what it meant to receive the honor but began looking for notes.
‘Let me find a statement. I’m supposed to read to you – because I haven’t read myself!’ he joked to reporters.
Reading from a piece of paper, he said: ‘Thank you, President Biden. This medal reflects what teamwork, service, and dedication can achieve.’
‘God bless you, God bless all, God bless America,’ he added.
Davis, while under fire from North Vietnamese forces near Saigon in June 1965, dragged fellow fellow serviceman to safety, even after a grenade ripped through his teeth and his trigger finger.
He refused to leave behind two of his comrades. One of them, Billy Waugh, spoke decades later of how Davis ‘grabbed me, and he (dragged) me, after he himself was shot several times and couldn’t walk.
‘I only have to close my eyes to vividly recall the gallantry of this individual,’ he wrote years later, in 1981.
Retired Army Colonel Paris Davis, a Vietnam veteran, was among the first black officers to lead Green Beret forces
President Biden shakes Colonel Davis’ hand
The paperwork recommending Colonel Davis for the Medal of Honor was lost – twice
Davis was nominated for the Medal of Honor soon after the event.
But the Army lost his paperwork in 1965. A commander submitted paperwork four years later, only to have it go missing again – prompting charges of racism. A 1969 military review didn’t reveal any Medal of Honor file on Davis.
His comrades suspected racism was at work.
‘What other assumption can you make?’ team member Ron Deis, then-77, told the New York Times in 2021.
‘We all knew he deserved it then,’ he said. ‘He sure as hell deserves it now.’
Waugh and his former commander, Billy Cole, each recommended him for the commendation.
Pressing on, his advocates contacted former Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, who ordered an expedited review of the matter.
Davis was asked by CBS last year whether he thought race was a factor. ‘I don’t think – I know race was a factor,’ he said.
According to the Times account based on after-action reports, Davis had teeth and his trigger finger blown off by the grenade in June, 1965 after his team came under fire. They and about 90 South Vietnamese forces continued to face fire.
He fired with his pinkie and ran into open areas to help his comrades.
Davis repeatedly sprinted into an open rice paddy to rescue each member of his team, according to the ArmyTimes. His entire team survived. Davis refused to leave the battlefield until his men were safely removed.
A native of Cleveland, Davis retired in 1985 at the rank of colonel and now lives in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington. Biden called him several weeks ago to deliver the news.
Colonel Paris Davis in Vietnam
‘This medal reflects what teamwork, service, and dedication can achieve’ – Colonel Davis
Davis eventually was awarded a Silver Star Medal, the military’s third-highest combat medal, as an interim honor, but members of Davis´ team have argued that his skin color was a factor in the disappearance of his Medal of Honor recommendation.
‘I believe that someone purposely lost the paperwork,’ Ron Deis, a junior member of Davis’ team in Bong Son, told the AP in a separate interview.
Deis, now 79, helped compile the recommendation that was submitted in 2016.
He said he knew Davis had been recommended for the Medal of Honor shortly after the battle in 1965 and he spent years wondering why Davis hadn’t been awarded the medal. Nine years ago he learned that a second nomination had been submitted ‘and that also was somehow, quote, lost.’
‘But I don’t believe they were lost,’ Deis said. ‘I believe they were intentionally discarded. They were discarded because he was Black, and that’s the only conclusion that 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, long time coming,’ Maj. Gen. Patrick Roberson, deputy commanding general, U.S. Army Special Operations Command, told the AP. ‘We, the Army, you know, we haven’t been able to see anything that would say, `Hey, this is racism.”
‘We can’t 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.
‘Some issues in our nation rise above partisanship,’ Miller wrote. ‘The Davis case meets that standard.’
