Hangar Talk: Colonel Paris Davis US Army Retired, Medal of Honor Recipient

Overview

Col. Paris D. Davis was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Joseph Biden in a March 2023 White House ceremony for his actions in 1965 as a Special Forces captain in Binh Dinh Province, South Vietnam. In his remarks, Biden said of Davis, “You are everything our nation is at our best: brave and big hearted, determined and devoted, selfless and steadfast. American. American.” On 18 June 1965, Davis and three other Special Forces soldiers led an inexperienced South Vietnamese company on a nighttime raid against a larger force, killing an estimated one hundred Viet Cong. Davis was wounded in the initial assault but continued to fight. The enemy then counterattacked, and he found himself engaged in what was to be a nineteen-hour battle. Davis was wounded several more times by small arms fire and grenade fragments during the fight but continued to engage the enemy directly with small arms and mortar fire, indirectly by calling in air and artillery fire, and at times, even in hand-tohand combat. He personally rescued two seriously wounded soldiers and directed their medical evacuation. Davis refused medical care for his own wounds until the enemy force was destroyed and all his soldiers were evacuated.