Show Notes

Decades after serving in Vietnam, Sammy Lee Davis returned to meet men who had once fought against him. They remembered the sound of his harmonica and asked him to play “Shenandoah” one more time.

On Coast to Coast Heroes, host Tony Mantor sits down with Sammy and his wife, Dixie, to talk about the night Sammy used an air mattress to cross a river and rescue three fellow soldiers despite his own wounds.

Sammy remembers being scared and going anyway because he believed those men would have done the same for him.

Sammy shares what it felt like to receive the Medal of Honor from President Lyndon B. Johnson, how footage of the ceremony became part of Forrest Gump, and what happened when he played “Shenandoah” again in Vietnam.

Dixie describes how combat trauma still shows up in their daily lives and what it means when other military spouses realize they have someone they can talk to.

Through it all, Sammy returns to the advice his mother gave him: “You don’t lose until you quit trying.”

Follow Coast to Coast Heroes for more stories of service and life after the military.