Clifford C. Sims Earned the Medal of Honor in the Korean War

Jan 17 , 2026

Clifford C. Sims Earned the Medal of Honor in the Korean War

Blood soaked the frozen ground. Movement stalled. Screams filled the air, cut short by silence — an eerie calm before the storm.

Clifford C. Sims stumbled forward, one leg mangled, crimson dripping through shredded winter gear. Enemy lines closed in like wolves at a trap. The men behind him faltered—fear, pain, and cold chaining their will. But Sims refused to break.

The Soldier Behind the Steel Gaze

Clifford C. Sims wasn’t born a hero. A Georgia farm boy raised under Southern skies, his hands knew hard work and quiet faith. Church every Sunday wasn’t just habit—it was armor. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want,” his mother recited to him as a boy, words that would soon echo in valleys stained with blood.

His code was carved from that faith and the grit of Southern soil: protect your own at all costs, face fear face-on, and never leave a man behind. The Army molded that code into iron resolve.

Sims entered service determined—not to chase glory, but to serve something greater than himself. Korea’s bitter winter brought hell in every blizzard, every firefight.

The Battle That Defined Him

November 26, 1950 — near Kujangdong, Korea.

Sims was a staff sergeant with Company G, 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. The Chinese People’s Volunteer Army had launched a ferocious counterattack. The line buckled under waves of enemy soldiers.

When a mortar shell shattered his left leg, Sims faced a brutal choice—collapse or fight on. With a screaming will that defied the agony, he bandaged his wound and grabbed his rifle.

His unit lost ground. Confusion spread. Sims mounted a countercharge, rallying men amid chaos. He led a bayonet charge uphill, moving step by bloody step despite the searing pain and numbness that threatened to drag him down.

His voice cut through the din: “Hold the line! We’re not done here!”

The enemy underestimated a crippled soldier with steel in his eyes. Sims’ fury broke through their ranks, buying his unit precious minutes to reorganize and repel the attack. His actions saved dozens of lives — men who owed their breath to the grit of a man who refused to yield.

Honor Tubed in Blood

Sims earned the Medal of Honor for that day’s valor—a citation dripping in raw truth, not polished words.

"With a grievous wound in his left leg, Staff Sergeant Sims fearlessly charged the enemy, inspiring his men to hold a critical position. His indomitable spirit was a beacon amid despair." — Medal of Honor Citation, 1951[1].

Fellow soldiers called him the “Iron Man of Kujangdong.” Lieutenant Colonel Charles D. Armijo said, “Clifford carried the fight in his broken frame. When others saw defeat, he burned with resolve. Men followed because they trusted a brother unbreakable in heart.”

The medal came years later, but the scars—both visible and unseen—never left.

A Legacy Written in Bone and Spirit

The Korean War, often called the "Forgotten War," still whispers through Sims’ story — one man’s stand for brotherhood and sacrifice in a frozen hell.

His legacy isn’t just the Medal pinned on a chest. It’s the raw truth of a warrior’s heart: courage doesn’t mean no fear. It means acting despite it. It means taking the one step forward when the world demands retreat.

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Sims lived that scripture on a jagged frontline.

For veterans still wrestling with their ghosts, his fight reminds us pain can forge purpose. For civilians, it demands respect for the silent debts born in war’s smoke.

Clifford C. Sims walked through hell, broken but unbowed. And in his blood-stained footsteps, we find a path — not to glory, but to grace, sacrifice etched in the fierce light of redemption.

Sources

[1] U.S. Army Center of Military History — Medal of Honor Recipients, Korean War, Clifford C. Sims. [2] Army Distinguished Service Records — 17th Infantry Regiment After Action Reports, November 1950. [3] Charles D. Armijo, Brothers in Valor: Memoirs of the 7th Infantry Division in Korea, 1952.