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Last updated on Wednesday, May 29, 2013
(INDIANAPOLIS) - Indiana’s only living recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor now has his own exhibit at the Indiana War Memorial.
Waverly native Sammy L. Davis was an Army private in 1967 when he repelled a Vietnamese attack with a damaged howitzer, then braved enemy fire to cross a canal and rescue three seriously wounded comrades, all while suffering from a broken back and shrapnel wounds.
War Memorial executive director Stewart Goodwin says Davis contacted him last year about donating artifacts of his service to the memorial's military history museum. The exhibit in the museum's Vietnam section includes Davis's uniform and patches, his Purple Heart citation, photos, newspaper and magazine clippings, various honors he's received over the years, and a shard of the howitzer Davis repaired under fire.
Davis told a cheering audience at the auditorium there was no good reason to single him out for the Medal -- he says every member of his unit deserved it just as much. He says it's made him "stand a little straighter" in the ensuing decades, to make sure he doesn't dishonor those he served with.
Governor Pence and former Governor Joe Kernan, a Vietnam prisoner of war, spoke at the dedication ceremony.
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