SFC, U.S. Army — Vietnam War
Melvin Morris was born on January 7, 1942, in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. He enlisted in the Army in 1959 and two years later became one of the first soldiers to qualify as a Green Beret at Fort Bragg, serving two tours in Vietnam with the Special Forces.
On September 17, 1969, near Chi Lang, Morris was commanding a strike force drawn from Company D, 5th Special Forces Group, when his companies walked into an extensive enemy minefield and came under heavy fire. Learning by radio that a fellow team commander had been killed near an enemy bunker, Morris reorganized his men and advanced with two others to recover the fallen commander. When both companions were wounded and helped back to friendly lines, Morris charged on alone into withering fire, destroying four enemy bunkers with hand grenades, clearing the bunkers nearest his fallen comrade, and carrying the body back across the battlefield — wounded three times along the way.
For this action Morris originally received the Distinguished Service Cross. Decades later, a congressionally mandated review of awards to minority veterans found that his decoration fell short of what his courage had earned, and the Distinguished Service Cross was upgraded to the Medal of Honor. President Barack Obama presented it at the White House on March 18, 2014. Morris retired as a sergeant first class in 1985, settled in Brevard County, Florida, and remains active with the Medal of Honor Society’s character-development programs, speaking to students about courage and service.
Sources: Wikipedia · Congressional Medal of Honor Society