Congressional Medal Of Honor Winners 2014: 24 Veterans Received Overdue Recognition; Ceremony Largest Ever Since WWII; ‘Better Late Than Never’

Congressional Medal of Honor Winners 2014: President Obama recognized on Tuesday 24 Medal of Honor recipients who finally received the overdue accolade for their efforts. The 24 awardees served during World War II, the Korean Wars, and Vietnam, to which one of the veterans getting the medal said “better late than never.” Tuesday’s ceremony was the largest ever since World War II.

The “better late” comment was uttered by Sgt. 1st Class Melvin Morris, who was just 27 when his actions during the Vietnam War earned him a Medal of Honor, but it wasn’t until now at age 72, that Morris has been properly acknowledged.

The much overdue event was a culmination of a 12-year review by the Pentagon to uncover cases where the nation’s highest honor for combat valor was deserved but overlooked because of racial and ethnic discriminations. The 72-year-old Morris, who’s African-American and served as one of the first Green Berets, told “Politics Confidential” that he didn’t think he was discriminated because of his race.

“I was with a bunch of professional men,” he said.

“The team were designed so that you get along together and you rely on each other, so it’s something that I never thought about.”

According to Yahoo! News, on a mid-September day in 1969, Morris and his team of Green Berets were on routine mission near Chi Lang, Vietnam, when he and his comrades came under enemy fire.

“That day was just a little bit odd,” Morris recalled, as reported by Yahoo! News.

“It was too quiet, not enough activity and so we moved through the village…and once we got to the wood line and then that’s when everything started happening.”

Morris, who was then a staff sergeant, got a call from his team captain telling him that he was badly wounded and that their team sergeant had been killed. Morris and his troops advanced to the position of his wounded team captain, who had already been evacuated by medical personnel by the time they arrived. Then, the young soldier received another call that senior leader had been killed and he was suddenly in command.

The incidentally installed team leader and his troops were coming under fire from the enemy, but he was determined not to leave the body of the fallen team sergeant behind.

“I just made a decision I’ll go in anyhow,” he remembered.

“And I got to my team sergeant’s body because, as a rule, we leave no soldier behind.”

Yahoo! News noted that by the time Morris got to his team sergeant’s body, the two men had braved enemy fire and had themselves badly wounded. Morris took them back to safety before he once again set off with two additional squadmates braving intense fire to recover the body of his team sergeant.

After Morris successfully retrieved the body, he sustained three bullet wounds. He then braved the enemy fire again despite his wounds to bring back a map that contained sensitive U.S. military information. According to Morris, he never once considered not acting in the valorous fashion that he did.

“We don’t join the military to back out when it get tough; we got to do what we’ve got to do,” he says.

The veteran never thought his actions in Vietnam would earn him a Medal of Honor. It’s that reason why he was so surprised when he first got a call from “a high government official.” He initially thought he was “in some kind of trouble or something.”

As Yahoo! News narrated: “And I got on the phone, he says, ‘This is President Obama. I'd like to apologize to you for not receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor 44 years ago,’ and I kind of went down a little bit,” Morris remembered from his phone conversation with the president. “He said ‘be cool, be cool be cool,’ and it was like he could see what I was doing.”

Morris story is just one of the 24 of Tuesday’s recipients whose bravery and heroism was finally acknowledged after decades of delay.