as we head into the Memorial Day Weekend the heroism of many black soldiers has long been overlooked in our country and one such Soldier U.S army specialist for Lester Williams Jr is one of those soldiers the Bridgeton natives served in the Vietnam War and gave his life to save his comrades by jumping on a grenade that landed in their bunker so why was he overlooked for a medal of honor my next guest Bill Davenport set out to change that through his Cape May County radio show "Welcome Home Veterans" Bill great to have you on the show tell me how you came across the story of U.S army specialist Lester Williams Jr well Joanna thank thank you for having me on the show uh I do a co-host a radio show on wibg 10 20 a.m it's out of Ocean City it's called the welcome home veterans show it's the Vietnam era welcome home is to catch furries for Vietnam veterans um one of the segments that I do weekly it is announced uh for the 17 years of the Vietnam War all the birthdays and casualties of those men and women that are on the Vietnam memorial wall they would have had that day or have been a casualty I also tack on by number the number that would happen in New Jersey I came across Lester Williams Jr um and when I looked up I looked at him I realized he had distinguished service cross and that Drew my interest because he's from Bridgeton so Bill the distinguished service cross that you mentioned is the second highest award why not the Medal of Honor and what are you doing how have you drawn attention to this issue so that not only Lester Williams Jr but other folks who perhaps deserved it and were overlooked get their due well fortunately a congress already did that just about the time coverage started they passed the rule resolution saying all the services should look at all those second level Awards be it the distinguished cervical trust or the Navy Navy cross depending on what service and they should review them based on maybe they were uh deny because of their religion or ethnic background or any other cause that would would exclude them normally when you read the distinguished service Cross of Lester Williams Jr you see that it's a boilerplate for the Medal of Honor when you jump on a grenade you get the Medal of Honor there are dozens and dozens of cases like that in all Wars including the current um one that we just got out of so it's really uh a situation that Congress passed a resolution the various military departments um are on board and they're reviewing they went through World War II in Korea they're on the Vietnam um our net right now for uh various reviews on ethnic and religious reasons do you believe that uh Lester Williams Jr will receive the Medal of Honor yes where we are right now the letters from the congressman van Drew Senator Booker and Senator Menendez our support letters is saying hey we believe in this situation we've read his distinguished service growth we've read the standards for a medal of honor and this this is the same this is a boy or plate Medal of Honor recipient that should be out there um it's a young 24 year old man who gave his life for his uh is a fellow Soldier Bill Davenport you're doing great work keep it up on your show welcome home veterans thanks for being with us today um thank you Joanne I appreciate it very much