Col. Paris Davis, one of the first Black officers in the Green Berets, will receive the Medal of Honor, nearly 60 years after serving in Vietnam.

According to CBS, on Monday (Feb. 12), President Joe Biden said via the White House that Davis, who was originally nominated in 1965, will be honored "for his remarkable heroism during the Vietnam War.”

Davis and his family reacted in a statement, "The call today from President Biden prompted a wave of memories of the men and women I served with in Vietnam – from the members of 5th Special Forces Group and other U.S. military units to the doctors and nurses who cared for our wounded.”

The statement continued, “I am so very grateful for my family and friends within the military and elsewhere who kept alive the story of A-team, A-321 at Camp Bong Son. I think often of those fateful 19 hours on June 18, 1965 and what our team did to make sure we left no man behind on that battlefield."

According to the Army Times, on June 18, 1965, Davis, 26 at the time, refused to abandon his fellow soldiers after a burst of enemy fire at the North Vietnamese Army camp in Bong Son. Even though he was injured and there was an order to withdraw, he rescued every member of

his team.

He was supposed to receive a Medal of Honor, but the paperwork disappeared twice. Davis, who served a total 23 years in the Army and is now 85, told CBS, "I know race was a factor." He also revealed he was called the n-word by troops.

In December 2022, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin officially signed off on the Medal of Honor and President Biden is expected to give final approval this week.

CBS reports only 8% of Medal of Honor recipients for Vietnam are Black, even though a disproportionate number of Black men served. By 1965, 31% of the ground combat battalions in Vietnam were Black, even though African Americans were only 12% of the U.S. population, the Library of Congress reports.