The Medal of Honor: Valor in Vietnam

The United States military’s highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor, was created by Congress in 1861. It is awarded in the name of Congress to a person who, while a member of the Armed Services, distinguishes himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against any enemy of the United States. The Medal is sacred among our military, and the men who wear it are revered for their honor and courage. Many of the awards are given posthumously to men killed in action. Today there are fewer than a 100 living recipients.

Three of these men joined the 11th Annual Conference to share their stories of valor. Moderated by Lt. General Nicholas B. Kehoe, President of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation, this panel featured Col. Wesley Fox, Col. Walter Joseph Marm, and Brian Thacker. Each of these three men earned their Medal for actions in Vietnam, fighting among a generation of American servicemen who were as brave and honorable as any in our nation’s history. In this issue, we are proud to share their stories of valor.

Col. Wesley Fox: My mission on 22 February 1969 was to see if the enemy unit was still off to the flank of our assault down the Da Krong Valley toward Laos, and if so, to do something about it. The fight really started after I found them. They gave me a clue as to where they were because they opened up with a machinegun and a mortar. We were in a dense jungle, so the mortars did not hurt us much as they burst up in the treetops. I focused on the source of the fire, with two platoons in the assault and one behind me. The company commander in a situation like that is behind his assault unit, right behind them and his reserve is behind him, so he can decide how he is going to use the reserve to influence the situation.

It got bad when they opened up with multiple machineguns and my assault stalled. What made matters worse was the realization that we were facing a bigger force than my under-strength Marine rifle company. I had less than 90 Marines going off the hill to look for the fight, but then committed a squad to another assignment. That gave me less than 80 Marines going into the fight. To jump ahead a little bit to put that into perspective, we counted 105 dead NVA bodies in the position when the fight was over. That gives you an idea of what we were up against in addition to the automatic weapons I mentioned.

My action really comes in at the stalled point of my assault. “What am I going to do about it?” I asked myself. The only way a commander can know what to do about it is to check it out for himself. That meant that I had to move forward to my advance elements, the rifle squads of the two assaulting platoons in the dense jungle. You could never see more than one person on your right or your left.

When I left, I directed my small command group, my radio operators and artillery FO to stay where they were as I moved forward to see what my next action should be. The first Marine I came to in the forward element was down – killed. The one to the right of him was wounded and a corpsman was taking care of him. The next Marine, as I moved along my front flank, was wounded and down. At this point, I thought we were in pretty bad shape and that I had two options: break contact and withdraw or commit my reserve platoon.

Well, I really wanted to break contact because I realized that we were up against a hard wall, but we could not do it. In this jungle to break contact and get out meant that I had to have all my Marines with me. We do not leave any man behind. For me to get the dead and the wounded out from under their guns was going to cost me more Marines. Would I have enough Marines to carry my dead and wounded and fight off the enemy? It was quite obvious to me that I could not do it.