{"id":164160,"date":"2026-02-04T21:57:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T21:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/164160\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T21:57:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T21:57:07","slug":"trump-tells-escondido-war-hero-he-will-receive-medal-of-honor-for-courage-during-korean-war-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/164160\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump tells Escondido war hero he will receive Medal of Honor for courage during Korean War \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump says he will bestow the Medal of Honor on Escondido war hero Royce Williams for the courage he displayed during the Korean War in taking on seven Soviet MiG fighter jets, shooting down four of them.<\/p>\n

Trump made the announcement Tuesday afternoon in a phone call to Williams, who will turn 101 this spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to put that very beautiful medal over his very strong neck,\u201d Trump told Williams\u2019 caregiver while he listened over a speaker phone. \u201cIt is the ultimate honor, so you\u2019ve got to shake his hand for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams told Trump, \u201cThis is wonderful. As you know, I\u2019m quite an old man \u2014 100 plus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams told the Union-Tribune Wednesday, \u201cThis is the fulfillment of a lifetime. I am so pleased.\u201d<\/p>\n

William\u2019s moment of courage<\/a> occurred on Nov. 18, 1952, while he and three other Navy pilots were flying their F9F-5 aircraft along the Yalu River, a demarcation line between North Korean and Soviet territories.<\/p>\n

Two of the Navy pilots bolted from the scene. Williams stayed behind and engaged in a 35-minute fight that\u2019s regarded as one of the most skillful acts of aerial warfare ever achieved by a U.S. Navy pilot.<\/p>\n

At the time, the incident was not publicized because the Soviets were not directly involved in the war. Williams, a humble man, could not even tell his wife. The story remained unknown until the early 2000s when the U.S. declassified certain records from the Korean War.<\/p>\n

Many veterans, military officials and politicians later lobbied the government to give Williams the Medal of Honor. He was awarded the Navy Cross \u2014 the Navy\u2019s second-highest military honor \u2014 in 2023. That didn\u2019t satisfy his supporters, who kept pressing for the higher medal.<\/p>\n

The effort was led by Steve Lewandowski, a former San Diego resident who created Operation Just Reward to drum up support.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter hundreds of hours of effort over the course of many years and the contribution of over a dozen individuals and so many barriers to overcome, we are so elated that this great American hero is finally going to get his just reward,\u201d Lewandowski said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

San Diego-area Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, who backed the effort, called Williams \u201ca Top Gun pilot like no other, and an American hero for all time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Royce did is \u2014 still to this day \u2014 the most unique U.S.-Soviet aerial combat dogfight in the history of the Cold War, and one in which Royce Williams demonstrated indomitable courage of the highest skill under incalculable duress,\u201d Issa said in a statement Wednesday. \u201cIt is my honor to have fought all these years for Royce to gain a recognition that he has not sought, but so richly deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The date of the Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House has yet to be announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump says he will bestow the Medal of Honor on Escondido war hero Royce Williams for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,10428,181,23,1703,100,3054,74,84,76,75,1696],"class_list":{"0":"post-164160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-escondido","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-military","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-north-county","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-san-diego-county","17":"tag-san-diego-headlines","18":"tag-san-diego-news","19":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}