Name: CPT Hugh Reavis Nelson, Jr.
Status: Killed In Action from an incident on 06/05/1966 while performing the duty of Pilot.
Age at death: 28.9
Date of Birth: 07/11/1937
Home City: Rocky Mount, NC
Service: AT branch of the regular component of the U.S. Army.
Unit: 114 AHC
Major organization: other
Service: AT branch of the U.S. Army.
The Wall location: 08E-012
Aircraft: UH-1B tail number 63-12942
Service number: O99098
Country: South Vietnam
MOS: 1981 = 19 Rotary Wing Aviator (Unit Commander)
Primary cause: Hostile Fire
Major attributing cause: aircraft connected not at sea
Compliment cause: small arms fire
Vehicle involved: helicopter
Position in vehicle: pilot
Started Tour: 01/02/1966
"Official" listing: helicopter air casualty - pilot
Length of service: 06
Location: Unknown Province
Additional information about this casualty:
CITATION TO ACCOMPANY THE AWARDING OF THE DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 26, 1963 has awarded the Distinguished Service Cross Posthumously, For Extraordinary Heroism in Action: to Captain Hugh Reavis Nelson Jr; Artillery, distinguished himself Extraordinary Heroism 5 June 1966, while serving as a member of the 114th Aviation Company (Airmobile Light) and engaged in military operations in the Republic of Vietnam. Captain Nelson was acting as Aircraft Commander of a Cobra Aircraft when it was struck by hostile gun fire, downed in the middle of many insurgent positions, and had all weapons destroyed in the crash. Upon the initial impact, all persons aboard the aircraft were rendered unconscious. As the first person to regain consciousness, Captain Nelson ignored his own injuries and insurgent ground fire from multiple positions, debarked the aircraft and began to remove his fellow crewmembers to safety. Proceeding to the left side of the aircraft Captain Nelson ripped off the door with his bare hands and removed a dazed specialist who had been pinned in the cargo compartment. After placing the specialist on the ground and observing that the injured pilot had managed to get out of the aircraft, Captain Nelson climbed into the Cobra to assist the other Specialist still trapped inside the aircraft. While insurgents continued a heavy volume of automatic and small arms fire at a range of approximately 30 feet from the aircraft, Captain Nelson continued his gallant efforts until he freed the trapped crew member. He then forced the specialist to the ground and, using his own body as a human shield to cover his comrade, took numerous hits from small arms fire saving the life of the fellow soldier at the sacrifice of his own. Because of this conspicuous, beyond the call of duty bravery this last act of his life enabled the saved crew member to send a signal with a smoke grenade to supporting aircraft which resulted in the successful evacuation of the three survivors. Captain Nelson's extraordinary heroism on the battlefield reflects great credit upon himself, the United States Army, and the Armed Forces of his county.
Editor's Note: The word Cobra in describing the aircraft was the unit call sign not the type of helicopter which was a UH-1B gunship. On 3 January 2025, President Biden presented the Medal of Honor to Nelson's daughter in a White House ceremony. This was an upgrade from this DSC that was the result of several years of effort by a small group of dedicated people. GBR January 2025.
The following from The Post and Courier of Charleston, SC, January 3, 2025
Medal of Honor awarded to Citadel grad, a chopper pilot killed in Vietnam saving his crew
By Schuyler Kropf skropf@postandcourier.comJan 3, 2025 Updated Jan 3, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. _ In a first for The Citadel, the nation's greatest military award was given posthumously to a school graduate _ a Vietnam War helicopter pilot who sacrificed his life saving his crewmen.
Army Capt. Hugh Reavis Nelson Jr., Citadel Class of 1959, joins the 3,519 previous recipients of the Medal of Honor, America's highest recognition for battlefield bravery.
The decoration was presented the evening of Jan. 3 in a White House East Room ceremony, where President Joe Biden noted The Citadel prominently in his remarks.
Nelson, of Rocky Mount, N.C., was 28 when he was killed in action after his helicopter was shot down over South Vietnam on June 5, 1966. While under heavy fire he rescued two other members of his flight team trapped in the wreckage and then used his body to shield one of them from incoming rounds, saving the man's life at the cost his own.
According to post-action accounts, Nelson moved to cover his 18-year-old mission specialist, becoming the target of nearly two dozen individual bullet strikes while allowing the soldier pinned beneath him to survive.
Nelson died on the scene. All his surviving crewmen were successfully rescued.
Nelson was given the Distinguished Service Cross, among other recognitions, for his actions that day. But the upgrade came after a Citadel Class of 1964 graduate took it upon himself to successfully launch a lobbying campaign through layers of congressional and Pentagon reviews seeking to have Nelson's file re-opened.
That effort started more than six years ago and bore fruit in April when it gained the approval of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin before formally being confirmed by Biden late last year.
For Nelson and The Citadel, it is the first such highest honor given to a fully recognized graduate of the state military college in Charleston, though it is not the first given to someone who previously spent time as an enrolled member of the Corps of Cadets.
Alumnus on a mission - Leading the recognition charge was retired Air Force veteran flyer Ted Curtis, a member of The Citadel's Distinguished Alumni committee. He assembled reports and approached like-minded supporters from the military and Nelson's Class of '59 to join the effort. He contacted anyone tied to the battle events of that day seeking records and testimonials, much of which was lost to time, memory and history.
Curtis, of Hilton Head Island, said his interest in Nelson came after reading the account of that final mission.
"When I read the citation, I said, 'Hell, that reads just like it was a Medal of Honor submission,'" he told The Post and Courier in explaining his original push to see a 60-year-old record corrected.
Curtis said he didn't have the words to express what the effort has meant to everyone involved, including Nelson's family and his three children _ two daughters and a son _ who never saw him again after he left Fort Bragg headed to Southeast Asia.
"My reward is to bring it all to them," Curtis said, calling the upgrade "the achievement of a lifetime."
The Citadel praised the recognition of Nelson's "values of courage, selflessness and leadership that we instill in every Citadel cadet."
"We will continue to honor his legacy with deep gratitude and unwavering pride and are proud to acknowledge him, not only as a Citadel graduate, but now also as a Medal of Honor recipient," said school President Glenn Walters, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general.
Nelson was forever proud of his Citadel education. While his family doesn't remember what drew him to enroll at the school for his education, they said he did come back after graduating to get married on campus.
It is not unheard of for reviews of military ribbons to lead to revisions, including going back decades or, in some cases, a century or more. Biden's two previous medal awards were given posthumously to Union soldiers from the Civil War who took part in 1862's "Great Locomotive Chase." They were part of a team of 24 who hijacked a train near Atlanta leading to railroad destruction and a long-running pursuit. Their families accepted the medals in July.
That day in Vietnam - Capt. Hugh Reavis Nelson Jr.'s final flight with the 114th Aviation Helicopter Company (he went by the first name of Reavis to friends, not Hugh) came as part of a combination training and search-and-destroy mission for Viet Cong insurgents in the vicinity of Moc Hoa, west of the former South Vietnamese capital of Saigon.
Nelson was piloting a Bell UH-1 Iroquois, commonly referred to as a "Huey," helicopter armed with rockets and machine guns _ one of five choppers flying in the formation that day.
Intense ground fire hit Nelson's bird and he lost control, slamming hard into a field at 100 mph. All four men onboard survived but were knocked about or unconscious. All had injuries of some sort, either broken bones or wounds from the ground fire.
According to the battle incident recaps, Nelson worked himself free and maneuvered to the outside of the crumpled wreckage, exposing himself to enemy fire. While suffering from severely wounded hands, he pulled off a sliding door so that he could extricate one of the crewmen pinned inside.
In the co-pilot seat, Bailey Jones _ who was also a Citadel grad Class of '64 _ suffered a broken leg and jaw. He got out on his own.
Nelson climbed inside the chopper's mangled belly to grab the fourth crew member. Enemy fighters _ some just 30 yards away _ intensified their fire.
As bullets buzzed round, Nelson splayed Specialist Chuck Counts flat on the ground before covering him with his own body.
"Don't move, son, don't move and you will be OK," he said, or some variation of these words, according to reports from the time.
"I took four hits, then Capt. Nelson crawled in front of me and he took 22 hits," the wounded Counts would tell a superior after the three survivors were rescued.
Counts said he felt the bullets come in that Nelson's body was absorbing.
"He died a hero's death," a friend would late write Nelson's family. "He gave his life while protecting a fallen comrade. Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for a friend."
Burial in Arlington National Cemetery and other recognitions would follow: Distinguished Service Cross, a Bronze Star and the Air Medal with a Fifth Oak Leaf Cluster.
Path to the medal - Some 260 Medals of Honor have been awarded tied to service in Vietnam. Nelson's case was especially burdensome to document given that all three men who flew with him that day have died. But in May 2019, Curtis sent a 77-page package of documents to Washington to begin an extensive review. Part of his research addressed the contention that Nelson was previously recommended for the medal but that it had been blocked by a ranking officer.
Five years later came the ultimate decision. From his desk inside the Pentagon in April, Austin wrote to the office of U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. _ the captain's home state _ that after giving the recommendation careful consideration he was persuaded by the evidence.
"I agree that Captain Nelson's actions merit award of the Medal of Honor," he wrote.
Biden actually confirmed his decision to the Nelson family weeks ago, but public confirmation of the award and for the six other recipients was kept under wraps until now.
"All the men were heroes," said Biden.
He went on to say that all the recipients "were the embodiment of the very best our nation has to offer."
Of Nelson, Biden said, "He was a Citadel graduate, a helicopter pilot and a proud young father."
His actions "cost him dearly, it cost him his life," the president said during the ceremony.
Nelson's children said the award reinforces what they remember and later learned about their father. Daughter Debbie McKnight was 5 years old the day he shipped out on Jan. 2, 1966. She especially recognized her father's sacrifice was that a high-ranking officer giving his life to save that of an enlisted man.
"He was brought up as a good Christian and a good soldier, and all he thought about was doing the right thing," she said.
Son Hugh R. Nelson III, who goes by Tripp, had the same sentiment.
"It's humbling. He did something, he gave his life for another in battle," he said .
Reason: aircraft lost or crashed
Casualty type: Hostile - killed
married male U.S. citizen
Race: Caucasian
Religion: Episcopal (Anglican)
Burial information: ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, VA
The following information secondary, but may help in explaining this incident.
Category of casualty as defined by the Army: battle dead Category of personnel: active duty Army Military class: officer
This record was last updated on 01/04/2025
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Date posted on this site: 08/17/2025
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