32-year-old sergeant first class rodela fought through his wounds in vietnam and rallied his men during 18 hours of constant combat. most days you can find melvin morris at home in port st. john, florida. 72 years old. a retired salesman and a great-grandfather. you ll find him working on his boat, going fishing, reading the bible, spending time with his beautiful wife, mary. married 53 years this month. you re going to have to give me some tips. we re not that far along yet. today, we remember how 27-year-old staff sergeant morris, one of our nation s very first green beret one of our very first green berets. think about that. i mean, that s legendary. how staff sergeant morris recovered a fallen comrade in
he reorganized his men into a posture before advancing forward and splitting off with two men to recover the team commander s body. observing the maneuver, the hostile force concentrated its fire on staff sergeant morris three-man element and successfully wounded both men accompanying him. after assisting the two wounded men back into forces lines, staff sergeant morris charged into enemy fire with only his suppressive men s fire. while machine guns against him, staff sergeant morris destroyed the positions with hand grenades and continued his assault ultimately eliminating four bunkers. upon reaching the bunker nearest the fallen team commander, the stast sergeant morris retrieved his comrade and arduous trick back to enemy lines and wounded three times but ultimately succeeded in returning his fallen comrade to a friendly position.
staff sergeant morris extraordinary heroism is above the call of duty reflect great credit upon himself and his unit and the united states army. [ applause ] master sergeant first class jose rodella.
to yield. santiago erevia, melvin morris, jose rodela, in the thick of the fight, all those years ago for your comrades and your country, you refused to yield and on behalf of a grateful nation, we all want to thank you for inspiring us, then and now, with your strength, your will, and your heroic hearts. please give them a big round of applause.
making. as one family member has said, this is long overdue. many of these families, and i had a chance to meet all of them who are present here today, you know, they ve known these stories of heroism for decades. still, they were pretty surprised when we called them to break the news about the medal of honor. some of them thought it was a prank. some of them thought it was a scam. a few of them thought it might be some trick to get their credit card number. when i called melvin morris, who we ll recognize in a moment for his actions in vietnam, his first reaction was, oh my god, what have i done? when i told him it was all good, the medal of honor, i could hear through the phone he almost