Medal of Honor history: Modrzejewski and Pope
44 years ago, Capt. Robert J. Modrzejewski and his men of Company K, Third Battalion, Fourth Marines, THIRD Marine Division were inserted by helicopter into an enemy-infested jungle near the De-Militarized Zone. Their mission was to set up a blocking position for a major enemy trail network.
Shortly after landing, the company encountered a reinforced enemy platoon in a well-organized, defensive position. Major Modrzejewski led his men in the successful seizure of the enemy redoubt, which contained large quantities of ammunition and supplies. That evening, a numerically superior enemy force counterattacked in an effort to retake the vital supply area, thus setting the pattern of activity for the next 2 1/2 days.
The citation states that Modrzejewski was “constantly present wherever the fighting was heaviest, despite numerous casualties, a dwindling supply of ammunition and the knowledge that they were surrounded…”
In September 1944, Marine Corps Captain Everett P. Pope earned the Medal of Honor for his valiant leadership against overwhelming odds on Peleliu. Pope and his men held the strategic hill against Japanese suicide attacks. When ammunition ran low, the Marines resorted to using rocks and bare fists.
In: Military History · Tagged with: Medal of Honor, Vietnam War, World War II
Medal of Honor history: Roberts and Barfoot
41 years ago in Thua Thien Province, Republic of Vietnam, Sergeant Gordon R. Roberts’ platoon embarked on helicopters to assist another company who was surrounded and heavily outnumbered by the NVA. Once Roberts and his men arrived, they were pinned down by heavy automatic weapons and grenade fire. Roberts would gallantly charge and destroy four bunkers and later assist in rescuing wounded comrades.
Roberts is the only Medal of Honor recipient still serving in the Armed Forces.
66 years ago on May 23 near Carano, Italy, Technical Sergeant Van T. Barfoot and his element were heavily engaged by a well-fortified enemy that held the commanding ground. Barfoot crawled forward, destroying an enemy machine gun position with a grenade, causing another machine gun position to surrender, capturing more than a dozen prisoners. When the enemy counterattacked, Barfoot destroyed a tank with his bazooka, and he moved forward into enemy territory to destroy a German fieldpiece with a satchel charge. Upon returning, Barfoot then assisted two wounded men to safety.
In: Military History · Tagged with: Medal of Honor, Vietnam War, World War II
Medal of Honor history: Roger H.C. Donlon
46 years ago, a reinforced battalion of Viet Cong soldiers launched a predawn attack against Camp Nam Dong, a small outpost just east of Laos. In the five hours of intense fighting that followed, Captain Roger H.C. Dalton would earn the Medal of Honor and his Operational Detachment A-726 would become one of the most decorated teams in history. Donlon was repeatedly wounded during the attack, which killed three Green Berets, one Australian advisor, and 55 of the camp’s South Vietnamese and Nung defenders. 65 defenders were wounded.
Despite being heavily outnumbered, the battle was a pyhhric victory for the defenders.
Donlon’s incredible citation can be read here.
In: Military History · Tagged with: Medal of Honor, Vietnam War
Medal of Honor history: Lemon and Beikirch
40 years ago, SP4 Peter Lemon and Sgt. Gary Beikirch earned the Medal of Honor in two separate incidents in Vietnam.
When Fire Support Base Illingworth came under attack, Lemon – a native Canadian and one of the youngest Medal recipients – engaged a numerically-superior enemy with his weapons until they both malfunctioned. Then Lemon used hand grenades to defend against an intense attack, killing all but one soldier – whom he chased down and dispatched during hand-to-hand combat. He rescued team mates, fought off further assaults with grenades, machine gun, and hand-to-hand fighting before collapsing from his multiple wounds. Read Lemon’s citation.
During the defense of Camp Dak Seang, Beikirch moved through withering fire to rescued and treated numerous soldiers after a devastating assault. Although Beikirch received multiple, serious wounds himself, he refused treatment and continued searching for wounded teammates before collapsing from his wounds. Read Beikirch’s citation.
In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: Gary B. Beikirch, Medal of Honor, Peter C. Lemon, Vietnam War
Medal of Honor History: Hagemeister and McNerney
Just days from separating from the Army, Charles Hagemeister learned that he would receive the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Binh Dinh province of Vietnam on 20 Mar 1967. While Richard Nixon presented the Medal of Honor to Hagemeister he asked, “How long do you have left in the service, son?” Hagemeister smiled and replied, “Seventy-two hours, sir.” The president turned to a member of the brass and said, “I want you to talk to this young man after we’re done here and change his mind.”
It must have worked. Hagemeister retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1990.
David McNerney was serving his third tour in Vietnam on 22 Mar 1967. While looking for a missing reconnaissance unit near Polei Doc, Vietnam, his unit came under heavy fire from a numerically-superior North Vietnamese Army. His officers were killed, so McNerney took command, calling in artillery withing 65 feet of his own men. The fighting was so intense that McNerney climbed a tree in full view of the enemy in order to identify their location to friendly aircraft. When helicopters were needed to evacuate the wounded, McNerney moved through a fusillade of fire to obtain demolition charges from abandoned rucksacks outside the perimeter.
McNerney would later volunteer for another tour – his fourth.
In: Military History · Tagged with: Charles C. Hagemeister, David H. McNerney, Medal of Honor, Vietnam War
Caught shaving
South Vietnam, July, 1965: A fire mission caught Sgt. Homer Charnock of Bravo Battery, 319th Artillery, in the middle of shaving, so he dropped his razor and rushed into position to man his gunsight. (Bernard Carmichael/Stars and Stripes )
In: Images, Military · Tagged with: Vietnam War
Today in Medal of Honor history: Allan J. Kellogg
40 years ago in the Quang Nam Province of Vietnam, SSgt. Kellogg was leading a 14-man blocking force for a company of Marines trying to force the enemy in their direction. Unable to find the enemy, Kellogg was about to pull out his men when a Marine tripped on a howitzer shell which caused it to explode, killing one and seriously wounding three.
Kellogg called for a helicopter (the radio operator was among the wounded) to extract the casualties, the enemy force began to close in. The Marines moved to the extraction site with columns of Viet Cong soldiers in pursuit. When Kellogg crossed a narrow, rickety footbridge through a hail of gun fire, an enemy grenade hit him in the chest, which he stomped into the mud and then covered with his body to shield his teammates from the explosion.
Although seriously injured from the grenade blast, Kellogg resumed command of the unit and lead them to safety. While he was recovering in the hospital, a corpsman informed him that he would receive the Navy Cross (later upgraded to the Medal of Honor). Kellogg reportedly shot back, “Just get me out of here, and we’ll call it even.” Kellogg’s Medal of Honor citation can be viewed here.
In: Military History · Tagged with: Allan J. Kellogg Jr., Medal of Honor, Vietnam War
Today in Medal of Honor history: Bernard F. Fisher
44 years ago, the US was evacuating personnel from a special operations camp in the Battle of A Shau. As Major Bernard F. Fisher and other pilots from the 1st Air Commando Squadron were attacking targets in support of the withdrawal, a A1-E Skyraider flown by Maj. Dafford “Jump” Myers was hit by enemy fire, forcing Myers to crash-land on the base’s airstrip. Fisher landed his plane and rescued Myers before the 2,000-strong enemy force could capture or kill him. The Skyraider flown by Fisher was restored and is now on display at the Air Force Museum, which I highly recommend everyone take a few days to visit.
Fisher’s actions made him the Air Force’s first Medal of Honor recipient (the Air Force was formed in 1947). His citation can be viewed here.
Interestingly enough, a similar event took place during World War II: when flying over Romania, flak damaged Capt. Richard “Dick” Willsie’s P-38 Lighting and forced the pilot to crash land. But before enemy soldiers could capture the pilot, Flight Officer Dick Andrews landed his Lightning and rescued Willsie. Remarkably, both Willsie and Andrews were involved in the A Shau rescue.
In: Military History · Tagged with: Bernard F. Fisher, Medal of Honor, Vietnam War
This Week in American Military History
From W. Thomas Smith, Jr.’s series at Human Events:
Mar. 8, 1965: The lead elements of 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines begin coming ashore at Da Nang, South Vietnam. Within hours, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines will arrive aboard transport aircraft at the nearby airbase. The Marines of 3/9 and 1/3 – both part of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade – are the first of America’s ground-combat forces destined for offensive operations against the enemy in Southeast Asia, once again putting teeth in the Marine Corps’ claim that it is “first to fight.”
Mar. 9, 1847: Thousands of American soldiers and a company-sized force of Marines (though referred to as a battalion) under the overall command of U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott and “Home Squadron” Commodore David E. Conner begin landing at Collado Beach, Mexico, just south of Vera Cruz.
In what will prove to be “a model” for future amphibious operations, the landings are unprecedented: The largest American amphibious operation to date, conducted in less than five hours without a single loss of life.
A portion of Conner’s dispatch to the Secretary of the Navy reads:
“Gen. Scott has now with him upwards of 11,000 men. At his request, I permitted the Marines of the squadron, under Capt. [Alvin] Edson, to join him, as a part of the 3rd Regiment of artillery. The general-in-chief landed this morning, and the army put itself in motion at an early hour, to form its lines around the city. There has been some distant firing of shot and shells from the town and castle upon the troops as they advanced, but without result.”
Though the landings are bloodless, grim fighting will continue in the Mexican-American War.
(more…)
In: Military History · Tagged with: American Revolution, Civil War, Flying Tigers, Mexican-American War, US Marine Corps, US Navy, Vietnam War, W. Thomas Smith Jr.
This Week in American Military History
Feb. 10, 1763: The Treaty of Paris is signed ending the Seven Years War, known as the French and Indian War in the North American colonies. For America – militarily speaking – the war strengthens Great Britain’s territorial dominance and strategic supremacy in North America. The war also serves as the conflict prior to the American Revolution in which many future Continental Army commanders cut their teeth.
Feb. 10, 1962: In a dramatic Cold War prisoner swap between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for Soviet spy Rudolph Ivanovich Abel on the Glienecker Bridge between West Berlin and Potsdam in East Germany.
Powers is a former U.S. Air Force officer who had been flying U-2s for the CIA when he was shot down over the Soviet Union and captured in May 1960. Abel, a KGB colonel, had been arrested in New York in 1957 and convicted of espionage activities against the United States.
In: Military History · Tagged with: Adm. William F. "Bull" Halsey, Civil War, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Francis Gary Powers, French and Indian War, Guadalcanal, Medal of Honor, USS Batfish, Vietnam War, W. Thomas Smith Jr.
