US to Award the Medal of Honor to Korean War Veteran Who Shot Down 4 Soviet MIGs

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Rapier108
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3:10p, 2/6/26
Quote:
Korean War fighter pilot and Escondido resident Royce Williams will be awarded the Medal of Honor, it was announced Wednesday.

Williams, now 100 years old and a retired Navy captain, will be recognized for facing off against seven Soviet MiG fighter jets in 1952, shooting four of them down in the process and narrowly surviving amid extensive enemy gunfire to his jet. When the mission was over, they counted 263 bullet holes in his plane.

Williams agreed to keep his heroics a secret because the Soviet Union was unofficially involved in the war at the time. He did so for over 50 years, until the story was revealed 2016. Until then, he had never revealed his role or the existence of the dogfight even to his wife or brother.

But after Soviet records of the war were released and declassified decades later, which revealed Williams' efforts, military veterans and elected officials led a campaign to ensure he was recognized.

Williams was awarded the Navy Cross in 2023 and now will receive the United States' highest military decoration. Williams was informed of the decision in a phone call from President Donald Trump earlier this week.

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/escondido-man-100-to-receive-medal-of-honor-for-heroics-kept-secret-for-50-years/3972897/

Okay, something good for a change rather than just more threads about Trump, AI, or the demise of the country.

I can't post the entire article, but read the rest. He engaged 7 Soviet MIG-15s and shot down 4 of them. These weren't MIGs flown by Chinese or North Korean pilots. The MIGs were flown by Russian pilots. The F9F Panther was inferior to the MIGs except for turning ability. He is the only US pilot to have shot down 4 jets in a single engagement, and the dogfight is the single longest on record.

The US knew almost immediately after MIGs first appeared in the conflict that the Soviets were in the war. Our pilots would see MIG pilots who were clearly not Asian, but it was kept a secret because the US didn't want Korea to widen into World War III, especially since the Soviets just got the atomic bomb.
"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." - Sir Winston Churchill
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Sharpshooter
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3:29p, 2/6/26
AG
Thanks, OP. Good news and history.
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TheEternalOptimist
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3:36p, 2/6/26
My grandfather, a Frozen Chosen USMC survivor and who is still alive at 94 years old, has always told me that Ted Williams, the baseball player who was also a Marine F4U pilot, should have also gotten the Medal of Honor. Lots of stories about his accomplishments and heroism there as well.

Anyways - love seeing that the Korean War Vets are not being forgotten!
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BusterAg
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3:48p, 2/6/26
AG
What an amazing story. I hope that Gary Sinise get's ahold of the movie rights before Netflix. I think that Royce would be better played by Chris Pratt than Idris Elba.

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aggie93
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3:53p, 2/6/26
AG
Very glad to see Trump do this, this guy was a true hero who earned the MoH.

Controversial take but Truman was a terrible President who got played so badly by Stalin it's hard to even put it into words. He gets credit for making the call to nuke Japan but other than that he was a freaking disaster. Dude had 2 of the greatest generals in US history in Patton and Macarthur but because they were Republicans that were saying what he didn't want to hear he took out both of them. He always played weak with the Soviets when Truman and the US had all the cards with resulted in the Soviets getting nukes, Mao taking over China, and so much more. He even let the Soviets do nothing to help us with Japan and then declare war just before the end so they could come in and do a massive land grab.

In school they taught about what a great President Truman was and "The Buck Stops Here" and making him into this hero but that dude screwed up the Post WWII situation as badly as Wilson did Post WWI, fortunately Eisenhower was able to clean up a lot of his mess. He was terrified of Stalin and got punked by him on every front even though.

It's legacies like Truman that really make you understand how much history is rewritten and is propaganda, sometimes you just have to open your eyes and do some critical thinking.
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

Ronald Reagan
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APHIS AG
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In reply to aggie93 • 12:42a, 2/7/26
aggie93 said:
Very glad to see Trump do this, this guy was a true hero who earned the MoH.

Controversial take but Truman was a terrible President who got played so badly by Stalin it's hard to even put it into words. He gets credit for making the call to nuke Japan but other than that he was a freaking disaster. Dude had 2 of the greatest generals in US history in Patton and Macarthur but because they were Republicans that were saying what he didn't want to hear he took out both of them. He always played weak with the Soviets when Truman and the US had all the cards with resulted in the Soviets getting nukes, Mao taking over China, and so much more. He even let the Soviets do nothing to help us with Japan and then declare war just before the end so they could come in and do a massive land grab.

In school they taught about what a great President Truman was and "The Buck Stops Here" and making him into this hero but that dude screwed up the Post WWII situation as badly as Wilson did Post WWI, fortunately Eisenhower was able to clean up a lot of his mess. He was terrified of Stalin and got punked by him on every front even though.

It's legacies like Truman that really make you understand how much history is rewritten and is propaganda, sometimes you just have to open your eyes and do some critical thinking.

The blame here was not Truman's but fell squarely on Roosevelt, which despised Truman and kept Truman in the dark about everything, to include the Manhattan Project and his dealings with Stalin, who Roosevelt trusted implicitly as "Uncle Joe", what Roosevelt called him, even though he was his Vice President.
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aggie93
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In reply to APHIS AG • 12:55a, 2/7/26
AG

APHIS AG said:
aggie93 said:
Very glad to see Trump do this, this guy was a true hero who earned the MoH.

Controversial take but Truman was a terrible President who got played so badly by Stalin it's hard to even put it into words. He gets credit for making the call to nuke Japan but other than that he was a freaking disaster. Dude had 2 of the greatest generals in US history in Patton and Macarthur but because they were Republicans that were saying what he didn't want to hear he took out both of them. He always played weak with the Soviets when Truman and the US had all the cards with resulted in the Soviets getting nukes, Mao taking over China, and so much more. He even let the Soviets do nothing to help us with Japan and then declare war just before the end so they could come in and do a massive land grab.

In school they taught about what a great President Truman was and "The Buck Stops Here" and making him into this hero but that dude screwed up the Post WWII situation as badly as Wilson did Post WWI, fortunately Eisenhower was able to clean up a lot of his mess. He was terrified of Stalin and got punked by him on every front even though.

It's legacies like Truman that really make you understand how much history is rewritten and is propaganda, sometimes you just have to open your eyes and do some critical thinking.

The blame here was not Truman's but fell squarely on Roosevelt, which despised Truman and kept Truman in the dark about everything, to include the Manhattan Project and his dealings with Stalin, who Roosevelt trusted implicitly as "Uncle Joe", what Roosevelt called him, even though he was his Vice President.

I could go on and on about Roosevelt as well but to quote Truman, "The Buck Stops Here" when it comes to who is responsible for Truman. Roosevelt screwed him and didn't like or trust him for sure but Truman made mistake after mistake for his 7 plus years in office. Stalin certainly shared FDR's opinion that he was unimpressive and he rolled him over and over again. I will definitely agree with you that Roosevelt is arguably worse in terms of who is more lionized but Roosevelt had some objective wins and was a lot stronger leader. Try and name a few objective W's for Truman, it's not easy outside of dropping the bomb (though realistically what else was he going to do at that point?)
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

Ronald Reagan
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Backyard Gator
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In reply to aggie93 • 2:30a, 2/7/26
aggie93 said:
Very glad to see Trump do this, this guy was a true hero who earned the MoH.

Controversial take but Truman was a terrible President who got played so badly by Stalin it's hard to even put it into words. He gets credit for making the call to nuke Japan but other than that he was a freaking disaster. Dude had 2 of the greatest generals in US history in Patton and Macarthur but because they were Republicans that were saying what he didn't want to hear he took out both of them. He always played weak with the Soviets when Truman and the US had all the cards with resulted in the Soviets getting nukes, Mao taking over China, and so much more. He even let the Soviets do nothing to help us with Japan and then declare war just before the end so they could come in and do a massive land grab.

In school they taught about what a great President Truman was and "The Buck Stops Here" and making him into this hero but that dude screwed up the Post WWII situation as badly as Wilson did Post WWI, fortunately Eisenhower was able to clean up a lot of his mess. He was terrified of Stalin and got punked by him on every front even though.

It's legacies like Truman that really make you understand how much history is rewritten and is propaganda, sometimes you just have to open your eyes and do some critical thinking.

So Thornton Melon was right?

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Dirty_Mike&the_boys
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5:08a, 2/7/26
"We're going to turn this red Prius into a soup kitchen!"
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Ellis Wyatt
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In reply to Backyard Gator • 8:08a, 2/7/26
Exactly what I thought of when I was reading his post.

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jabberwalkie09
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In reply to Rapier108 • 8:18a, 2/7/26
AG
The History Guy did an episode on this dogfight just at the end of last year.

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ts5641
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In reply to Rapier108 • 8:30a, 2/7/26
Outstanding!
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