Richard Cavazos’ name is already recognized throughout the US military. He forged a path through service in Korea and Vietnam to become the first Hispanic four-star general, leading to a legacy that included renaming Texas’ 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.
Photograph of the Department of Defense
Cavazos, who died in 2017, won the award for actions during the Korean War in 1953, when the young first lieutenant led his company through multiple rounds of assaults to destroy an enemy outpost, all while ‘faced heavy fire. After his company was ordered to withdraw, Cavazos returned alone several times to rescue the missing soldiers, although he too had been 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 the seven medals during a ceremony at the White House on Friday. One of the honorees, Kenneth W. David, who won the honor for heroism in Vietnam, is expected to receive the award in person, while the families of the other deceased winners will accept the award in his honor.
Photograph of the Department of Defense
Some of the families have been working for recognition for decades. Cpl. Fred B. McGee’s daughter, Victoria Secrest, has been advocating for him to receive the award since the early 1990s.
“The odds are against you, and I started looking like the crazy lady with the clipboard everywhere. And then the computer, the laptop everywhere I went. And then the iPad everywhere. And here we are in 2024. , about to enter 2025, and we’ve made it.” Secrest told reporters at a panel discussion late last month.
Photograph of the Department of Defense
McGee receives the award posthumously for commanding his squadron unit in Korea after its leader and several others were wounded during an assault on an enemy position. He eventually had to order his unit to withdraw, but voluntarily stayed behind to evacuate the wounded and dead, despite the facial wounds he sustained.
In the 1950s, McGee received an unusual form of recognition for his heroism. He was honored in a comic, but there was a mistake. “They forgot about their melanin,” Secrest said. The comic portrayed McGee as white, 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 Donald Dingee, a classmate at Arlington High School. Johnson was killed in action in Korea while saving the lives of up to 10 wounded soldiers, including Dingee.
Photograph of the Department of Defense
Johnson is being posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in June 1953.
Although the honors are about 70 years in the making, it’s clear that these veterans made an immediate impact on their communities.
Charles Allen, the nephew of Medal of Honor recipient Pvt. Bruno R. Orig, during the media roundtable, told Richard E. Cavazos’ son, Tommy, 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 mentor, a senior mentor, ‘Greybeard,’ as we affectionately called him. … And when he spoke, everybody listened, everybody listened, and it impressed me then.”
Image of the Department of Defense
Allen’s uncle is receiving the award for actions he took near Chipyong-ni, Korea on February 15, 1951, administering first aid while under attack and firing at the enemy while the squad d’Orig was safely withdrawn.
Capt. Hugh R. Nelson Jr., who served in the Vietnam War, was in command of a Huey helicopter flying a search-and-destroy reconnaissance mission in June 1966 when he was hit by a heavy volume of fire enemy Nelson and the pilot were able to land the helicopter and Nelson then helped evacuate the other injured crew members from the helicopter. He used his body as a shield to cover one of his crew members from intense enemy fire, sacrificing his own life to save them.
Photograph of the Department of Defense
And finally, PFC Wataru Nakamura is receiving the award for actions he took near P’ungch’on-ni, Korea on May 18, 1951, when he single-handedly rushed enemy forces with a fixed bayonet and drove the enemy from several bunkers they had captured. . He withdrew to replenish ammunition and then continued to charge the enemy, killing four out of every two bunkers. He was killed by an enemy grenade.
Photograph of the Department of Defense
Nakamura’s nephew Gary Takashima thinks his uncle, if he were alive, would react to receiving the award with humility. Takashima told reporters that his uncle “would have been very honored to receive the Medal of Honor, but he would have felt that all of this was too much for him to do what he was supposed to do.”