1 00:00:02,033 --> 00:00:05,000 AMNA NAWAZ: One of the first Black military officers to lead an elite unit in combat 2 00:00:06,900 --> 00:00:09,400 today received the nation's highest award for bravery on the battlefield, 3 00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:13,000 righting what advocates say was a decades-long injustice. 4 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:18,000 Geoff Bennett has the story and a conversation with retired Army Colonel Paris Davis. 5 00:00:20,233 --> 00:00:23,100 GEOFF BENNETT: Recognition nearly 60 years overdue. 6 00:00:23,100 --> 00:00:25,100 (APPLAUSE) 7 00:00:25,100 --> 00:00:27,900 GEOFF BENNETT: President Biden today awarding retired Army Colonel Paris 8 00:00:27,900 --> 00:00:32,100 Davis the Medal of Honor, the U.S. military's most prestigious decoration, 9 00:00:32,100 --> 00:00:36,366 for Davis' acts of valor as a commander during the Vietnam War. 10 00:00:36,366 --> 00:00:37,966 JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: Paris, 11 00:00:39,866 --> 00:00:43,433 you are everything this medal means, I mean everything this medal means. 12 00:00:44,833 --> 00:00:47,733 And look, you're everything our generation aspired 13 00:00:47,733 --> 00:00:51,333 to be. And you are everything our nation is at our best. 14 00:00:51,333 --> 00:00:54,066 GEOFF BENNETT: Davis, now 83 years old, 15 00:00:54,066 --> 00:00:59,066 was one of the first Black officers to lead a U.S. Special Forces team in combat. 16 00:00:59,066 --> 00:01:04,033 On June 18, 1965, Davis, then a captain, led his team, plus 95 South Vietnamese troops, 17 00:01:07,966 --> 00:01:12,966 in a predawn raid on a North Vietnamese army camp. When the raid started, 18 00:01:14,966 --> 00:01:18,233 a counterattack forced the group into a rice paddy with no cover. Every American was wounded, 19 00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:24,366 some stranded. Davis, shot and hit by grenade shrapnel, raced back to rescue his team. 20 00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:27,833 COL. PARIS DAVIS (RET.), Medal of Honor Recipient: We were sort of 21 00:01:27,833 --> 00:01:30,800 submerged in the rice paddy, had been shot twice in the same foot. 22 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:35,700 GEOFF BENNETT: Davis first spoke of the battle in 1969 on the Phil Donahue show, 23 00:01:35,700 --> 00:01:39,900 sharing how he twice refused orders from a commander to withdraw. 24 00:01:39,900 --> 00:01:41,633 COL. PARIS DAVIS: Well, I told him: "Sir, 25 00:01:41,633 --> 00:01:43,633 I'm just not going to leave. I still have an American out there." 26 00:01:43,633 --> 00:01:48,300 GEOFF BENNETT: The combat lasted 19 hours. His entire team survived. 27 00:01:49,766 --> 00:01:52,633 Immediately after, Davis' commander submitted his 28 00:01:52,633 --> 00:01:57,033 name for the Medal of Honor. But the military lost his paperwork two times, 29 00:01:57,033 --> 00:02:02,000 with no record of it ever being submitted. Davis' team has long argued race played a role. 30 00:02:03,966 --> 00:02:06,033 RON DEIS, Former Special Forces Soldier: It's been emotional, to say the least. 31 00:02:06,033 --> 00:02:10,900 GEOFF BENNETT: Ron Deis, at 79, is the team's youngest survivor. He's also part of the group 32 00:02:12,833 --> 00:02:16,933 of advocates who painstakingly recreated and resubmitted Davis' Medal of Honor paperwork. 33 00:02:18,133 --> 00:02:19,666 What does Colonel Davis mean to you? 34 00:02:19,666 --> 00:02:22,833 RON DEIS: In this past nine years, working with the team 35 00:02:24,866 --> 00:02:29,166 to recreate all the documentation it takes for a medal like this, growing very fond 36 00:02:34,133 --> 00:02:39,133 of him. I respected him immensely when I was under his command. And that's never wavered. 37 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:47,133 GEOFF BENNETT: We spoke with Colonel Davis the day before the Medal of Honor ceremony. 38 00:02:47,133 --> 00:02:51,033 In June of 1965, Davis was 26 years old, 39 00:02:51,033 --> 00:02:55,866 a Black officer leading an all-white unit. He recalled the day of the attack. 40 00:02:55,866 --> 00:03:00,866 COL. PARIS DAVIS: I remember that the first thing on my mind was to get going. 41 00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:06,900 When you're in a situation that is foreign to you, 42 00:03:08,933 --> 00:03:13,233 you take a moment and try to piece it together. In a war, you don't do that. 43 00:03:13,233 --> 00:03:16,633 GEOFF BENNETT: And you were firing your rifle with your pinkie finger... 44 00:03:16,633 --> 00:03:19,700 because your hand was shattered by a grenade. 45 00:03:19,700 --> 00:03:22,966 COL. PARIS DAVIS: That's right. Not only that. The grenade knocked 46 00:03:22,966 --> 00:03:25,733 out a couple of my teeth and some other things. 47 00:03:25,733 --> 00:03:30,733 And think about fighting, pulling the trigger with your little finger. It's 48 00:03:32,700 --> 00:03:37,500 slippery, blood everywhere, people dying, a volley of the Air Force dropping bombs, 49 00:03:42,533 --> 00:03:47,533 the artillery of firing shells. And all this is happening, and you got a couple of men down. 50 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:55,200 GEOFF BENNETT: And you twice disobeyed commands to withdraw, to effectively abandon your men. 51 00:03:57,100 --> 00:04:00,966 Well, it was really interesting, because I'm trying to make a decision of what -- how 52 00:04:02,633 --> 00:04:07,633 we can really handle the wounded. I understand he was a general officer 53 00:04:09,566 --> 00:04:12,033 and saying: "Don't worry. Just leave him there. And we will get him." 54 00:04:12,033 --> 00:04:14,633 And I'd said: "We're not going to -- we're not going to go." 55 00:04:14,633 --> 00:04:19,633 It probably stopped me from being a general officer, because I had disobeyed an order. 56 00:04:20,666 --> 00:04:22,433 GEOFF BENNETT: Immediately after that, 57 00:04:22,433 --> 00:04:25,200 your commander submitted your name for the Medal of Honor. 58 00:04:26,666 --> 00:04:29,633 GEOFF BENNETT: But the paperwork inexplicably disappeared twice. 59 00:04:30,766 --> 00:04:32,866 And there was no record of the file. 60 00:04:34,866 --> 00:04:37,600 It strikes me that you didn't have to wonder much about the reason for that. 61 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:42,600 COL. PARIS DAVIS: The interesting thing there was, the soldiers ere saying: "What's going on here?" 62 00:04:47,433 --> 00:04:52,433 It brought to the fore racism and the different way whites are treated and Blacks are treated. 63 00:04:56,866 --> 00:05:01,866 They had never, to my knowledge, at that time lost a Medal of Honor citation that 64 00:05:05,433 --> 00:05:10,433 was lost by a white guy. But they did with a Black guy. And the soldiers knew it. 65 00:05:12,333 --> 00:05:16,500 And so it changed the whole complexion of war, especially when you're out there 66 00:05:19,133 --> 00:05:24,133 fighting with them, and they know that it's not right. And the other thing is, 67 00:05:27,300 --> 00:05:32,033 more important than that is the fact that I pulled guard duty. 68 00:05:34,033 --> 00:05:37,566 They thought that that was the thing that separated me from other officers, 69 00:05:41,333 --> 00:05:45,466 because, when other officers had teams, they never pulled guard duty, 70 00:05:45,466 --> 00:05:50,466 that their lives were on the line when they were pulling guard duty. Why couldn't I? 71 00:05:51,900 --> 00:05:56,266 The other thing that we did was the fact that NCOs 72 00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:02,166 all ran patrols. I was on some of those patrol, not as a leader, but as a machine gunner. 73 00:06:05,666 --> 00:06:08,500 GEOFF BENNETT: President Biden called you to inform you that 74 00:06:08,500 --> 00:06:11,533 you would receive the Medal of Honor. What was that moment like? 75 00:06:11,533 --> 00:06:16,233 COL. PARIS DAVIS: I don't know if a lot of people know the president. But, 76 00:06:16,233 --> 00:06:20,866 in those five or six minutes -- and he wanted to talk longer -- he was so cordial. 77 00:06:20,866 --> 00:06:25,866 Remember the balloons that were up in the sky. I mean, that's when I got the phone 78 00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:31,100 call. And we started talking. And he had read a lot of the things that I was doing, 79 00:06:33,100 --> 00:06:37,433 good things, the battles and all that, and just a couple of them, not in detail, 80 00:06:39,033 --> 00:06:41,933 but it was enough for me to realize that he knew what was going on. 81 00:06:41,933 --> 00:06:46,933 And so, during the conversation, he would ask about the family and about this and that. There 82 00:06:48,933 --> 00:06:52,300 was a time when he said something about lunch, and I said: "Are you going to pay for it?" 83 00:06:52,300 --> 00:06:54,366 (LAUGHTER) COL. PARIS DAVIS: He said: 84 00:06:54,366 --> 00:06:56,833 "Why the hell would I have you there if I would have to pay for it myself?" 85 00:06:58,766 --> 00:07:00,366 COL. PARIS DAVIS: And we talked about the - - we were talking about the White House. 86 00:07:00,366 --> 00:07:03,900 And we had a couple of three really nice jokes there that 87 00:07:03,900 --> 00:07:07,766 aren't appropriate right now. But I will tell you, he's got a sense of humor. 88 00:07:07,766 --> 00:07:09,266 GEOFF BENNETT: How do you think you're going to 89 00:07:09,266 --> 00:07:11,500 feel when he puts the Medal of Honor around your neck? 90 00:07:11,500 --> 00:07:16,300 COL. PARIS DAVIS: Well, the one thing that I'm really afraid of doing is crying. 91 00:07:26,333 --> 00:07:31,333 The medal means to the Black race than it means to me. For so long, we have had this reputation 92 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:48,200 of not being part of America. I think this medal might settle that. And I think it's 93 00:07:52,666 --> 00:07:57,666 really important for something like this to happen. Luckily, it's happening to me. 94 00:07:59,700 --> 00:08:01,533 This medal means a lot. 95 00:08:03,500 --> 00:08:07,100 It means a lot to America to see that we're all capable of doing -- doing good. 96 00:08:10,900 --> 00:08:12,000 GEOFF BENNETT: What's it like 97 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:18,300 living for 60 years knowing that you deserved recognition for what you were wrongfully denied? 98 00:08:20,300 --> 00:08:24,366 COL. PARIS DAVIS: The thing that bothered me the most is, the military, knowing that, 99 00:08:26,700 --> 00:08:31,500 didn't have the gumption to give me a call to say, hey, 100 00:08:33,466 --> 00:08:37,633 we lost it, and we can't find it, and then coming back and said: "We understand that 101 00:08:45,833 --> 00:08:50,833 someone put the second narrative in, and we can't find it either." 102 00:08:53,866 --> 00:08:58,233 And I'm saying: "You're telling me you lost the citation twice?" 103 00:08:59,666 --> 00:09:03,333 And they said: "No, no, no, we just can't find it twice." 104 00:09:04,300 --> 00:09:06,333 And I said: "Right." 105 00:09:06,333 --> 00:09:10,700 It was something that doesn't happen. You can name the number of people that have won the 106 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:16,033 Medal of Honor. And to lose -- just to lose that, that citation, really pissed me off. 107 00:09:18,533 --> 00:09:23,533 But when -- when you find out, 108 00:09:25,500 --> 00:09:29,833 the silence is the word. Nobody calls. No one says anything for 50 years. 109 00:09:31,900 --> 00:09:35,466 GEOFF BENNETT: Well, it's all being made right now. So... 110 00:09:35,466 --> 00:09:36,266 COL. PARIS DAVIS: That is. 111 00:09:36,266 --> 00:09:38,233 The other thing you is, 112 00:09:38,233 --> 00:09:43,033 I'm happy as a pig in you-know-what that it is going to be President Biden. 113 00:09:44,500 --> 00:09:45,933 GEOFF BENNETT: Well, Colonel Davis, congratulations, sir. 114 00:09:47,133 --> 00:09:48,533 It is a real honor to speak with you. 115 00:09:50,466 --> 00:09:53,933 And there are -- there are lots of folks who thank you for your sacrifice, your patience, 116 00:09:53,933 --> 00:09:57,000 your diligence, your tenacity, your service. So, thank you. 117 00:09:58,466 --> 00:09:59,633 COL. PARIS DAVIS: No, thank you. I really appreciate it.