The name of Richard Cavazos is already recognized in the US Army. He made his way to becoming the first Hispanic four-star general through service in Korea and Vietnam, leaving a legacy that included renaming Texas's Fort Hood for him. It is now Fort Cavazos.
But on Friday he will finally receive the nation's highest military award, the Medal of Honor.
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Cavazos, who died in 2017, earned the award for actions during the Korean War in 1953, when the young first lieutenant charged his way through several rounds of fire to destroy an enemy outpost while facing heavy fire. Led the company. After his company was ordered to retreat, Cavazos returned alone several times to rescue missing soldiers, even though he too was wounded.
Cavazos, along with six other veterans, will receive the Medal of Honor for their actions in Korea or Vietnam.
President Biden is expected to present seven medals during a ceremony at the White House on Friday. One of the recipients, Kenneth W. David, who earned the honor for valor in Vietnam, is expected to receive the award in person, while the families of other deceased recipients will accept the award in their honor.
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Some families have been working for decades for recognition. Cpl. Fred B. McGee's daughter, Victoria Seacrest, has been advocating for him to receive the award since the early 1990s.
“The odds were against you, and I started looking like a crazy lady with a clipboard wherever I went. And then with computers, laptops wherever I went. And then with iPads wherever I went. And here we are. We're in 2024, we're going to be in 2025, and we've made it.” Seacrest told reporters at a media roundtable late last month.
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McGee is receiving the award posthumously for commanding his squad unit in Korea after its leader and several others were wounded during an attack on an enemy outpost. Eventually he had to order his unit to retreat, but despite facial wounds, he voluntarily stayed behind to evacuate the wounded and dead.
In the 1950s, McGee received an unusual form of recognition for his heroism. He was honored in a comic book, but there was an error. “They forgot his melanin,” Seacrest said. McGee was portrayed as white in the comics, even though he was black.
Others have been honored in their home communities. A statue of PFC Charles Johnson at the high school he attended in Arlington County, New York depicts him saving Arlington High School classmate Donald Dingey. Johnson died in Korea while saving the lives of more than 10 wounded soldiers, including Dinghy.
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Johnson is receiving the Medal of Honor posthumously for his actions in June 1953.
Although these honors have been nearly 70 years in the making, it is clear that these veterans had an immediate impact on their communities.
Charles Allen, nephew of Medal of Honor recipient Pvt. Bruno R. Orig told Richard E. Cavazos' son Tommy during a media roundtable that his father “is truly a hero.”
“I had a chance to meet your father.” Allen told Cavazos. “He was already a retired four-star (general). He was a guru, senior guru, 'Grey Beard,' as we affectionately called him… and when he spoke, everyone listened , everybody listened, and then they impressed me.”
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Allen's uncle is receiving an award for the actions he performed providing first aid during an enemy attack and fire near Chipyong-ni, Korea, on February 15, 1951, while Orig's platoon returned safely. Had gone.
Captain Hugh R. Nelson Jr., who served in the Vietnam War, was in command of a Huey helicopter conducting a search-and-destroy reconnaissance mission in June 1966 when he came under heavy enemy fire. Nelson and the pilot were able to crash-land the helicopter and Nelson then helped evacuate other injured crew members from the helicopter. He used his body as a shield to protect a member of his crew from intense enemy fire and sacrificed his life to save them.
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And finally, PFC Wataru Nakamura is receiving an award for action near Pungchon-ni, Korea, on May 18, 1951, when he single-handedly charged an enemy force with a fixed bayonet and killed the enemy in his Were driven out from many occupied bunkers. , He withdrew to collect ammunition and then continued to attack the enemy, killing four men in two bunkers. He was killed by an enemy grenade.
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Nakamura's nephew, Gary Takashima, thinks that had his uncle been alive, he would have reacted with humility upon receiving the award. Takashima told reporters that his uncle “would have felt very honored to receive the Medal of Honor, but he may have felt that it was all too much for what he was supposed to do.”