Cotton recognizes two military heroes

In a Senate floor speech, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton paid tribute last week to two Medal of Honor recipients, Capt. Thomas J. Hudner and Col. Wesley L. Fox.

Both men died recently. Hudner was 93, Fox was 86.

Hudner earned his medal for the heroism he displayed in December 1950 in Korea.

After seeing a squadron mate shot down on a snowcapped mountain, Hudner intentionally crash-landed his own plane nearby and fought unsuccessfully to free his comrade from the burning plane.

Hudner was white; the doomed serviceman, Ensign Jesse L. Brown, was black. They were serving together in a military that had only recently been integrated.

“The only color that mattered to them and that they shared in common besides the color of our flag was the Navy blue of their uniform,” Cotton said.

Their friendship, he said, was “a symbol of America’s promise.”

Fox, wounded in Korea, went on to serve in Vietnam, as well.

In February 1969, he was wounded in the A Shau Valley, but “refused medical attention, instead concentrating on leading the attack, coordinating air support, and supervising the evacuation of the dead and injured,” Cotton said.

Fox’s Medal of Honor citation cited his “indomitable courage, inspiring initiative and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of grave personal danger.”

Cotton, who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Hudner and Fox were “true American patriots” who displayed “the utter selflessness of courage.”