(Image source from: Vietnam War Hero receives America's highest Medal of Honor after 45 years})

Better late than never. 45 years after, the war hero Melvin Morris got his due when President Barack Obama awarded the retired Army sergeant first classfrom Port St. John the Medal of Honor for his valor on a Vietnam battlefield in 1969 at a White House ceremony.

Morris is among the 24 Army veterans — only three are alive mow— to receive nation’s highest military honor.

The 24, who performed acts of valor during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, had been previously felicitated with the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second-highest military award. However, the Army always felt that they all deserved the Medal of Honor.

It took an order from Congress, passed in 2002, and Pentagon to extensively review its files to name the honoree. In the past, racial discrimination had prevented Hispanic, black and Jewish soldiers from receiving the medal. Morris is black.

“This ceremony is 70 years in the making,” Obama told a packed audience in the East Room. “As one family said, this is long overdue.”

As the president spoke, Morris watched from the right side of the stage with the other two living honorees, Specialist Four Santiago Erevia and Sgt. 1st Class Jose Rodela.

Morris was shot in the chest, arm and hand while taking actions that the Army described as “extraordinary heroism, gallantry and intrepidity.”

AW: Suchorita Choudhury