"Truly historic" Group of 24 Veterans Awarded Medal of Honor after having been Unjustly Overlooked due to Bias

Aimee Herd : Mar 19, 2014
Jonathan Karl, Jordyn Phelps, Alexandra Dukakis

"No nation is perfect. But here in America, we confront our imperfections and face a sometimes painful past, including the truth that some of these soldiers fought and died for a country that did not always see them as equal… today we have the chance to set the record straight." -President Obama

Though long overdue, on Tuesday, 24 wrongs were made right when President Obama awarded a Medal of Honor to 24 recipients who served during WWII, the Korean War and Vietnam, who had been overlooked because of racial or ethnic discrimination. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP Photo/via ABC News)

It was the single largest group of service members to receive a Medal of Honor since World War II, and included 19 Hispanic, Jewish and African-American soldiers.

Within that group was Sgt. 1st Class Melvin Morris who told the media the award was so unexpected that when he received a call that "a high government official" wanted to talk to him, he was afraid he was in trouble for something.

Morris described his call from the President: "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. He said 'be cool, be cool be cool,' and it was like he could see what I was doing." (Photo: Melvin Morris/AFP, Saul Loeb/via Google)

According to the Yahoo News report, during the Vietnam War, Morris and his fellow 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 the decision I'll go in anyhow," he recounted. "And I got to my team sergeant's body because, as a rule, we leave no soldier behind."

By the time Morris got to his team sergeant's body, the two men who had braved enemy fire with him had themselves been 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 successfully retrieving the body, Morris sustained three bullet wounds after he braved enemy fire yet again to bring back a map that contained sensitive U.S. military information. Morris said he never once considered not acting in the valorous fashion that he did.

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