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An Amazing story and an amazing story ~~~~~ On this day, 58 years ago, November 18, 1967, 21-year-old Private First Class Sammy L. Davis was serving as a cannoneer with Battery C, 2nd Battalion, 4th Artillery at a remote fire support base in Vietnam. At approximately 2:00 a.m., Firebase Cudgel (west of Cai Lay) came under sudden heavy enemy mortar bombardment. Almost simultaneously, a reinforced Viet Cong battalion of roughly 1,500 soldiers launched a fierce ground assault, advancing to within 25 meters of the American positions. Only a wide river separated the charging Viet Cong from Davis’s unit, preventing the enemy from immediately overrunning the firebase. Spotting an enemy emplacement across the water, PFC Davis seized a machine gun and opened fire, providing covering fire for his artillery crew as they tried to direct cannon fire on the attackers. Moments later, an enemy recoilless rifle round scored a direct hit on Davis’s 105 mm howitzer, blasting the gun crew off their weapon and hurling Davis violently into a foxhole. Dazed and bruised, he pulled himself up and ran back to the howitzer, which was now burning fiercely. His fellow soldiers shouted for him to take cover, but Davis ignored the warnings and rammed a shell into the damaged cannon. He aimed the howitzer at the onrushing enemy and fired point-blank, the blast launching the weapon’s deadly beehive darts into the front ranks of the Viet Cong assault wave. The cannon’s recoil slammed Davis to the ground, but he got up and reloaded to fire again. As he was preparing another shot, an enemy mortar round exploded less than 20 meters away, peppering him with shrapnel and painfully wounding his back and side. Despite his injuries, Davis kept loading and firing the howitzer. He pumped at least three more shells into the attacking force, refusing to yield his position. When his supply of regular artillery rounds was exhausted, he even fired a white-phosphorus incendiary shell and then a final “propaganda” leaflet shell – using every last round he had against the enemy. His relentless one-man barrage finally staggered the Viet Cong assault, but the fight was far from over. In the brief lull, Davis heard the screams of wounded American soldiers coming from across the river in the darkness. Although he was badly hurt and knew he couldn’t swim, Davis grabbed an air mattress, threw it into the water, and paddled across the deep river under enemy fire to reach his stranded comrades on the far bank. Upon reaching the other side, he found three wounded U.S. soldiers. Davis stood upright in the water and fired his rifle into the surrounding jungle, suppressing the Viet Cong lurking in the dense vegetation nearby. While another GI helped the most critically wounded man through the water, Davis shielded the remaining two. He hauled the two injured soldiers onto his air mattress one by one and pulled them back across the river to safety at the fire base. Though bleeding and nearly exhausted, PFC Davis still refused medical attention. Instead, he joined a nearby howitzer crew and continued fighting. He helped man the guns until the large Viet Cong force finally broke off the engagement and fled just before dawn. For his conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in that harrowing battle, Sammy Davis was later promoted to the rank of Sergeant and nominated for the Medal of Honor. Exactly one year later – on November 19, 1968 – President Lyndon B. Johnson presented Sgt. Sammy L. Davis with the Medal of Honor in a ceremony at the White House. Davis survived his Vietnam wounds and continued to serve in the Army until he retired in 1984 due to those war-related injuries. He did not fall in the fight, and in fact Sammy L. Davis is still alive today at age 79, proudly bearing the Medal of Honor he earned for his heroic actions in Vietnam. #OnThisDay #MedalofHonor #fblifestyle