Bishopville plans a bronze statue of Medal of Honor Marine James Capers Jr.

Bishopville, South Carolina, wants to put its most decorated son in bronze. A local legacy project is raising money for a life-size statue of retired Marine Maj. James Capers Jr. in downtown Memorial Park. Capers was born in the town and received the Medal of Honor at the White House on June 18.

The nation's highest award

President Donald Trump placed the medal around the neck of the 88-year-old Capers 59 years after the fight that earned it. Capers is the first Black Marine officer to receive the award. He grew up in a sharecropping family and rose to second lieutenant through a battlefield commission in Vietnam in November 1966. A day after the White House ceremony he was added to the Pentagon's Hall of Heroes.

The last patrol

The medal recognizes a four-day reconnaissance patrol that ended on April 3 1967 near Phu Loc. His team walked into a claymore ambush and every Marine was wounded. Capers was hit in 14 places and his right leg was broken. He kept firing and directed the other wounded Marines into a tight perimeter. He also called in mortar rounds close to his own position to silence enemy guns.

At the helicopter landing zone he would not board until every man was loaded. The body of the team's war dog King went aboard too. When the overloaded helicopter struggled to lift off he tried to jump out to lighten it and the crew chief pulled him back in.

A long wait

Officers recommended Capers for the Medal of Honor decades ago but a 2010 review left him with a Silver Star instead. Supporters kept pressing. Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina wrote a bill to waive the five-year time limit for the award and Congress passed it by unanimous consent. Trump signed it on March 26.

A statue for the hometown

The legacy project is organized by two local museums and has commissioned sculptor Maria Kirby-Smith of Camden to create the figure. Backers say it is meant to inspire future generations in the town where he was born in 1937.