Rocky Mount Vietnam vet receives Medal of Honor for act of heroism: 'Acted as a human shield'

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. (WTVD) -- The family of Rocky Mounty native Cpt. Hugh Nelson Jr. received the Congressional Medal of Honor at the White House on his behalf.

Nelson was killed in action on June 5, 1966, at 28 years old.

On that day, CPT Nelson was piloting a helicopter while serving as a member of the 114th Aviation Company near South Vietnam, when they were struck by enemy gunfire.

"Their helicopter got hit. They crashed and hit the ground at 100 miles an hour. Our father was first to regain consciousness," said Nelson's son Hugh Nelson III.

Nelson began pulling his wounded comrades out of the wreckage. He returned back to the helicopter to protect the last soldier's life at the cost of his own and acted as a human shield in the line of gunfire.

"We've gotten multiple reports but some say our father took as many as 22 rounds to protect the other," said Hugh.

In October, President Joe Biden personally called Nelson's daughter Debbie McKnight to inform her that it was his honor to posthumously approve and present her with the Congressional Medal of Honor on behalf of her dad.

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"When you answer the phone and he goes this is Joe Biden. He didn't say this is President Biden," said McKnight. "I went excuse me. I have to sit down. It was two minutes and 16 seconds. You know your phone tells you how long the phone call is. One of the last things he said to me was he was quite a handsome man and I went 'My mother thought so too.'"

At the time of Nelson's death, McKnight was just 5-years-old and her brother Hugh III turned one year old the day after their father was killed. According to the family, the process to receive this medal took nearly seven years.

"Knowing that the whole world is going to know what he did and the fact that he did for his country because that's the kind of man that he was," she said.

Cpt. Nelson was a husband and father to three children that he never saw grow up. His family visited Arlington Memorial Cemetery where he was buried just one day before receiving the honor. They can only imagine what he'd say if he knew.

"Probably that he didn't deserve it. He didn't do anything special. He just did what anybody would and should do," said McKnight.