This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here.

Bennie G. Adkins received the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest award for valor, at a White House ceremony in September 2014. While he was mainly remembered for an extraordinary act of bravery in the Vietnam War, he devoted his postwar years to helping both his community members in Alabama and latter-day Special Forces troops better their lives through education.

As a Green Beret sergeant, Mr. Adkins played a major role in preventing the annihilation of his outnumbered unit when it was ambushed in March 1966 at its remote South Vietnam camp.

“During the 38-hour battle and 48 hours of escape and evasion, Adkins fought with mortars, machine guns, recoilless rifles, small arms and hand grenades, killing an estimated 135 to 175 of the enemy and sustaining 18 different wounds,” the Medal of Honor citation read.