Veterans to Honor Milton Lee Olive, IIII, First Black Medal of Honor Recipients in Vietnam War
Veterans to Honor Milton Lee Olive, IIII, First Black Medal of Honor Recipients in Vietnam War (Chicago, IL) — Congressman Danny K. Davis (D-7th) will join members from the U.S. Army veterans Monday, May 27, 2024, 8 a.m. at the Olive Park, 500 North Lake Shore Drive, to honor the 59th anniversary of the death of Milton Lee Olive, III, a Chicago native, who was the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War. He also received a Purple Heart.
Born a breach baby on November 7, 1946, to Milton B. Olive, II, and Clara Olive, his mother died shortly after his birth. Skipper, as his family called him, was raised by his aunt, Zylphia Wareagle Spencer, and her husband Jacob Spencer, in Englewood. He attended the Nikolaus Copernicus Elementary School at 60th and Loomis and a nearby Catholic School.
Years later when his father, a professional photographer and a supervisor for the City of Chicago’s Human Resource Department, married Chicago Public School teacher Antoinette Mainor, Skipper lived with his grandparents in Lexington, Mississippi, going back and forth between Chicago and Mississippi until his father learned he had joined a Mississippi Freedom voter registration drive.
Because it was ten years since Emmett Till was murdered, his father feared his son would be killed and ordered him to return back to Chicago. He gave Skipper three choices: Go back to school, get a job or join the military.
Young Olive joined the U.S. Army in 1964, He was assigned to the U.S. Army Company B, 2nd Battalion (Airborne) 503d Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade. It was there 59 years ago when on October 22, 1965, young Olive spotted a live grenade during a search and destroy mission in Phu Cuong, Republic of Vietnam, allowing it to explode and saving the lives of four comrades. Skipper died 16 days before his 19th birthday.
Of the four men he saved, only retired Capt. Jimmy B. Stanford is alive. He thanks God every day for what Skipper did and continues to ask why Skipper saved his life a man he did not know.
Veterans to Honor Milton Lee Olive, IIII, First Black Medal of Honor Recipients in Vietnam War
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