How the Medal of Honor Changed My Life

Sammy Lee Davis, 77, Indiana: Awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Lyndon Johnson, November 19, 1968.

I was born in Dayton, Ohio. My dad was in the military. I joined the Army in 1966, and I remember stepping off the airplane in Vietnam. It was nice and cool in the airplane, and it was 100 degrees outside. Stepping off the airplane, we soldiers looked at each other in amazement.

On the night of November 18, 1967, I was with Battery C, 2nd Battalion, 4th Artillery, 9th Infantry Division, patrolling a fire base. We were told we were going to get hit that night, and the battle started at 2 a.m. There was a river and we saw the enemy coming toward us on the other side, shooting at us. The Viet Cong fired an RPG [rocket propelled grenade] to hit our cannon, and the explosion threw me, unconscious, back into my foxhole. They thought I was dead. My ears were ringing, and I couldn’t hear much. When I came to, I could see the enemy running toward me, and I did my job as a soldier. I picked up my M-16 and started firing.

That’s when one of our guys, Wendell Holloway, of Stockton, California, waved his hat at me from the other side of the river, shouting, “Don’t shoot, I’m a GI!” He screamed, “Come get me!” My back was broken, my ribs were crushed and I’d been shot in the right leg with an AK-47. But I had to go get my brother, because he would have done the same for me. I swam across the river, and when I got there, there were three men, not just Wendell — all wounded, one unconscious. I used an air mattress to help get us all back to the other side. I dragged everyone back across the river, and when I got there, my guys helped get everyone out. We all survived.

When I woke up in a hospital in Japan, I’d been unconscious for a few days. General William Westmoreland was standing beside my bed. He had some 30 beehives [pieces of shrapnel] in his hand that a surgeon had removed from my body. He said, “Son, we’re going to retire you from the Army and send you home.” I didn’t want to go home. General Westmoreland understood. I needed closure; I needed it for my soul to be OK. So, I went back to Vietnam.

Medal of Honor recipient Sammy Lee Davis at his home in Freedom, Indiana.

Kevin J. Miyazaki

I set foot back on American soil on March 13, 1968. You have probably seen footage of the ceremony when I received the Medal of Honor. In the movie Forrest Gump, when Forrest is receiving his Medal of Honor, that is my actual film footage from when I received the medal. They put Tom Hanks’ face over mine. Every time I see Forrest Gump, it sure brings back memories.