Sergeant Rodney M. Davis is Macon’s only Medal of Honor recipient. This Veteran’s Day, reflect by reading about how his heroism made an impact here at home and beyond.
Story by Eldredge McCready
Rodney Maxwell Davis did not live a long life, but his time on Earth is still proving itself to be impactful almost a half century after his heroic death.
While growing up in Macon’s Pleasant Hill neighborhood as the second of five children to Ruth and Gordon Davis, Rodney often looked out for and protected his younger siblings. Jim Crow laws, which segregated the races, were in full force back then and made times hard for Black people in the South during the ‘40s and ‘50s, as Rodney was being raised.
His younger brothers Howard and Robert had a paper route, and one day, they were harassed by a group of other boys. According to Robert, Rodney grabbed a shovel to chase the boys away.
His sister Debra recently recalled a time they were headed to get some ice cream. She remembers the shop, called Sunshine Ice Cream, around Monroe and Forsyth Streets. “They would make Black kids stand on the corner to be served,” she said.
Instead of making them walk past the store, Rodney went inside and purchased the ice cream for them, so that his younger siblings did not have to suffer the racist indignity.
While attending the all-Black Appling High School, Rodney and several schoolmates got on a bus and sat in unoccupied seats. The driver stopped the bus at the corner of Riverside Drive and Spring Street, and used a racial slur while ordering the Black teens to the back of the bus. To avoid possible confrontations with the authorities, Rodney and his classmates, which included two of his cousins, exited the bus. After being joined by some adult passengers, the group walked all the way back to Pleasant Hill.
Soon after graduating in 1961, Davis enlisted in the Marine Corps. After completing a grueling basic training at Parris Island, S.C., he was sent to Camp Lejeune.
Eventually, he was stationed overseas as a military security guard at the United States Embassy in London.While in London, he met a woman named Judy, who was working at different embassy nearby. He and Judy got married and were blessed with two daughters, Nicky and Samantha. Davis, who had enlisted for six years, decided to re-enlist in 1967.
The Vietnam War did not exist as a threat to U.S. troops when Davis enlisted in 1961, but when Rodney re-enlisted, Americans were increasing their presence in the conflict.
The Marines have a motto of “First to Fight,” and Rodney felt he needed to get involved in the battle. After some additional training at Camp Pendelton, Davis was shipped to Vietnam. He arrived in the country in August of 1967 and was assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division.
Davis and a platoon of 48 men were sent into combat soon thereafter in the Que Son Valley, where fierce battles were ongoing. His platoon’s mission was to chase down North Vietnamese forces and Viet Cong in the area.
Soon after arriving, Davis and his troops were ambushed and outnumbered by the enemy, which included over 2,000 men. They fought vigorously for two days in terrain which was full of rice paddies and tall grass. Under heavy machine gun fire, they retreated to a long trench as bullets whizzed by them.
The North Vietnamese advanced closer and began tossing hand grenades at the Marines, who frenetically tossed them back.
Except for one.
Davis saw a grenade land a few feet near himself and the others in the platoon. Without hesitation, he pounced on it and was killed immediately. Less than a month after arriving in Vietnam, Sgt. Rodney M. Davis, 25 years old, made the ultimate sacrifice on Sept. 6, 1967.
His selflessness saved the other five men in the trench. Ironically, all the other Marines were white. Of the 48 men in Rodney’s platoon, only 11 remained after that battle. The others were either wounded or, like Davis, killed.
For his heroic act of courage, Rodney Maxwell Davis was posthumously a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the highest military honor bestowed. It was awarded to his wife Judy in Washington, D.C. by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew on March 26, 1969, with his parents, siblings, and young daughters in attendance.
John Hollis, a seasoned journalist married to Rodney’s niece, wrote the book “Rodney M. Davis: The Making of a Hero” which was published in 2018. The book has been well received, including by the military, where it landed on the Army Times summer reading list.
Sgt. Davis was eligible to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, but his family opted to bring his remains home. He is interred at Linwood Cemetery in Macon. Decades after Davis passed, a number of Marines went to Linwood to pay their respects, including one of the men Davis saved. They were dismayed by weeds growing over gravesites and headstones knocked over, so they organized a cleanup and raised funds for a bigger memorial for Davis. Marines still come by regularly to assist in maintaining the cemetery.
With the aid of military and civilian defense leadership he met due to the book, Hollis was able to enlist the help State Department employees and the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi. After negotiation, a trip was arranged for Davis family members to travel to Vietnam and visit the land where their loved one gave his life.
The 14-person contingent made the trip in September 2024, paid for by Frederick W. Smith, founder and CEO of FedEx, who was also a Vietnam veteran. Family members included Rodney’s oldest daughter Nicky, Debra’s son Edgar Ray (an assistant principal at Veterans Elementary School in Macon), Rodney’s niece Regina Davis-Hollis, John Hollis, and their son Davis Hollis, now 20, who is currently attending college in Australia s an exchange student from the University College of Dublin.
On September 6, 57 years to the day that Rodney was killed, the group went by bus after acquiring maps of the Que Son Valley, and reached the exact spot of Rodney’s demise.
“It was a trip of a lifetime,” said Regina. “It was both emotional and cathartic. I felt like I was standing in the middle, because my son said he was there to be supportive of me and his Aunt Nicky. It was unbelievable to be there in the land where my uncle lost his life.”
Regina, whose father Howard of the paper route story passed in 2021, is also very proud of her son, who became an unofficial spokesperson for the group, which included a dinner and interactions with many Vietnamese officials and news media.
Nicky, a Bay Area bank executive, told Nashville reporter and Marine Reservist Josh Roe on the trip that although she barely remembers her father, she has learned about him from her mother Judy, who passed away in 2018. She was only 2 years old at the time, but still keeps a picture of the Medal of Honor ceremony.
“It’s the screensaver on my phone,” she told Roe.
Nicky’s younger sister Samantha did not make the trip, but she, like many Davis family members, has made her mark in life.
Samantha Steen is now a lawyer in South Florida. Her husband Daris Steen is a former Marine, like Rodney, and her three sons are gridiron giants. Her oldest, Tyler Steen, is an offensive lineman for the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles. He told ESPN in 2022 that his grandfather’s legacy weighs on him now. “I honestly can’t imagine it because he was close to my age when he was fighting in Vietnam and made that decision,” he said. “To this day, I can’t imagine what was going through his head. Obviously, it was a split-second decision and it really wasn’t something he had to think about. It was something that was ingrained in him. I can’t wrap my head around it, but it was incredible.”
Her middle son Blake Steen is also an offensive lineman who recently transferred to Mississippi State after beginning his studies at the University of Virginia. Her third son is a budding scholar athlete in high school.
The courage and sacrifice made by Sgt. Rodney M. Davis has not gone unnoticed. A guided missile frigate ship, The USS Rodney. M. Davis was named for him in 1987 and served the Navy well until it was decommissioned in 2015. A marker was dedicated to him in Macon’s Rosa Parks Square, across from City Hall, in 2016.
Academic scholarships honoring Rodney’s name have also been established, with the first coming in 2012.
Another Sgt. Rodney M. Davis Memorial Scholarship became available in 2022 through the Community Foundation of Central Georgia. It serves graduating seniors from Bibb County high schools who have been junior ROTC candidates. Students seeking professional certification, associate, or bachelor’s degree are eligible to apply.
Rodney’s sister Debra Ray is glad her brother has received the recognition he deserves, but she is “hopeful some younger family members will take over” to ensure her big brother’s legacy is continued.
