'A very exciting and humbling, humbling day'

EUGENE, Ore. - Around retired Lt. Colonel Joe Jackson's neck is a special medal you don't see too often.

"It's a chore to wear it, to tell you the truth," Jackson said.

The story behind how the 89-year-old Vietnam veteran earned it is also something you don't hear everyday.

It was in 1968 when 45-year-old Air Force Lt. Colonel Jackson rescued three men from a special forces camp at Kham Duc.

Jackson said the thing he remembers the most is feeling scared at that point.

"I think that anybody who is involved in an action resulting in the award of the Medal of Honor - I don't care what they tell you - they were scared," Jackson said.

In 1969, President Lyndon Johnson awarded Jackson with the prestigious medal.

"When you're in the presence of the president of the United States and he is saying nice things about you, it really gives you a feeling of humility, I'll tell you," Jackson said.

On Wednesday evening, Jackson shared his story with dozens of people at an outreach event put on by Morgan Stanley Smith Barney along with the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation.

"We don't want our younger generations - God willing they grow up in peace - to forget what the price of that peace was and who the champions were," said Robert Jerome, a member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation.

Jackson said the Medal of Honor is an honor he did not expect to earn.

"I don't think there's any military man that really expects to be awarded the Medal of Honor," Jackson said. "It was just a very exciting and humbling, humbling day."

The Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation hosts 40 events honoring Medal of Honor recipients every year throughout the country.

There are only 81 living Medal of Honor recipients in the United States.