{"id":88006,"date":"2025-12-09T19:45:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T19:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/88006\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T19:45:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T19:45:29","slug":"defense-bill-includes-likely-medal-of-honor-for-escondido-korean-war-ace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/88006\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense bill includes likely Medal of Honor for Escondido Korean War ace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timesofsandiego.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Royce-Williams.jpg?ssl=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Royce-Williams.jpg\" alt=\"Capt. Royce Williams\" class=\"wp-image-195818\"  \/><\/a>Capt. Royce Williams in front of a Panther jet. (Photo courtesy San Diego GI Film Festival)<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to efforts by Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/issa.house.gov\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Darrell Issa<\/a>, the 2026 national defense bill includes language allowing the President to award a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmohs.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Congressional Medal of Honor<\/a> to retired Navy Capt. <a href=\"https:\/\/sandiegoairandspace.org\/hall-of-fame\/honoree\/royce-williams\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">E. Royce Williams<\/a>, a resident of Escondido.<\/p>\n<p>Williams, 100, shot down four MiG-15s piloted by Russians in a half-hour battle near the close of the Korean War in November 1952. <\/p>\n<p>There was immense damage to his F9F-5 Panther jet, but he managed a near-perfect landing on the flight deck of the USS Oriskany. Despite the heroic effort, Williams was instructed to keep the action secret to avoid a possible confrontation with Russia. The truth was not revealed until 2002.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEscondido\u2019s\u00a0Royce\u00a0Williams is 100 years young, a Top Gun pilot like no other, and an American hero for all time,\u201d said Issa. \u201cThe heroism and valor he demonstrated for more than 35 harrowing minutes almost 70 years ago in the skies over the North Pacific and the coast of North Korea saved the lives of his fellow pilots, shipmates and crew.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis story is one for the ages and it now has its rightful chapter as\u00a0Royce\u00a0receives the Medal of Honor,\u201d said. Issa.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/119th-congress\/senate-bill\/2296\/text\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">National Defense Authorization Act for 2026<\/a>, finalized on Sunday, includes language that removes a five-year statute of limitations  so that Williams can be considered for the nation\u2019s highest military recognition. President Trump will have the final say on whether to award the medal.<\/p>\n<p>Royce initially received the Silver Star, and that was elevated to the Navy Cross in 2023, but Issa and other supporters continued to press for the highest recognition.<\/p>\n<p>READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Capt. Royce Williams in front of a Panther jet. (Photo courtesy San Diego GI Film Festival) Thanks to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7668,49179,10428,517,27469,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-88006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-darrell-issa","tag-e-royce-williams","tag-escondido","tag-korean-war","tag-russia","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88006","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=88006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}