Richard Gene Wilson (August 19, 1931 – October 21, 1950) was a United States Army soldier and a posthumous recipient of the U.S. military’s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in the Korean War. A combat medic, Wilson was awarded the medal for attempting to rescue a wounded soldier at the Battle of Yongju.
Richard G. Wilson was born in Marion, Illinois, on August 19, 1931, to Bert and Alice Wilson. He had three brothers, Norman, Norris Dean, and Ronald, and three sisters, Rosemary, Shirley, and Jo Anne.
The family moved to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 1939 where he attended May Greene School followed by Central High School. He was an avid sportsman and played right guard on Central’s football team. After his junior year, Wilson left high school to join the Army; he enlisted on his seventeenth birthday, August 19, 1948.
After completing basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, Wilson reported to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where he was trained as a combat medic. He next attended Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia, graduating in May 1949. He was assigned to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, as a medic in the 11th Airborne Division.
Just before leaving for Korea, on August 29, 1950, Wilson married Yvonna Lea Fowler, a Central High School classmate.
Wilson served in Korea as a private first class with the 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment. On October 21, 1950, he was attached to Company I when the unit was ambushed while conducting a reconnaissance in force mission near Opa-ri.
Wilson exposed himself to hostile fire in order to treat the many casualties and, when the company began to withdraw, he helped evacuate the wounded. After the withdrawal was complete, he learned that a soldier left behind and believed dead had been spotted trying to crawl to safety.
Unarmed and against the advice of his comrades, Wilson returned to the ambush site in an attempt to rescue the wounded man. His body was found two days later, lying next to that of the man he had tried to save. For these actions, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on August 2, 1951.
Several U.S. military buildings have been named in his honor, including the Richard G. Wilson Memorial Gymnasium in the Kanoka Barracks near Osaka, Japan; the Richard G. Wilson U.S. Army Reserve Center in Marion, Illinois; the PFC Richard G. Wilson Training Barracks at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, in 1986; the Richard G. Wilson Consolidated Troop Medical Clinic in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; and the Wilson Theater in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Among the memorials in his honor are “America’s Medical Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen in Peace and War” by Eloise Engle, 1967, and a memorial to Wilson in Cape County Park, 1988, in Cape Girardeau. Other structures named for him include Richard G. Wilson Elementary School in Fort Benning, Georgia, and a postal distribution center in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, dedicated in 2004.
(Data extracted from Wickipedia)