President Trump awards the Medal of Honor to Specialist James McCloughan of Michigan for heroism in Vietnam as a combat medic.

#ad
Try Audible Plus
https://amzn.to/3V7Zi73

On 13 May, McCloughan's company air assaulted into a landing zone near Tam Kỳ and Nui Yon Hill, coming under small arms and machine gun fire from defending North Vietnamese Army (NVA) forces. Two helicopters were downed over the landing zone, one of which crashed around 100 meters (110 yards) from Company C's positions. A rescue helicopter was prevented from landing due to fierce enemy fire, and a squad was sent out to rescue the pilot and crew. Upon reaching the crash site, they saw a badly wounded soldier sprawled on the ground, and McCloughan ran 100 meters (110 yards) to him through an open field, dodging the fire of his unit and a charging NVA platoon. After reaching the wounded soldier, McCloughan carried him over his shoulder and ran back to Company C, thus saving the man from capture or death.[3]

Later that afternoon, the company's 2nd Platoon was ambushed by a large NVA unit, suffering heavy casualties, while conducting reconnaissance near Nui Yon Hill. As airstrikes were attacking nearby NVA, McCloughan entered a trench and saw two unarmed American soldiers huddling near a bush. He handed his gun to another soldier, jumped over the trench's berm, and ran close to the ground towards the two soldiers, whom he pulled back into the trench despite being hit with shrapnel from the explosion of a rocketpropelled grenade (RPG). Ignoring an order to remain in the trench, he rescued wounded soldiers from the kill zone four more times during a NVA assault. Bleeding heavily, McCloughan treated the wounded and prepared them for evacuation, refusing evacuation even though the NVA heavily outnumbered the American troops.[3]

On 14 May, the 1st Platoon was ambushed while advancing on Nui Yon Hill, and its medic was killed in the fighting, which left McCloughan as the company's sole medic. While treating two soldiers in an open rice paddy, he was wounded a second time by small arms fire and RPG shrapnel. In the closing phases of the attack, two NVA companies and 700 VC attacked the company's position from three sides. With complete disregard for his own safety, he braved enemy fire numerous times to bring out wounded soldiers, simultaneously fighting the enemy. After supplies ran low, McCloughan volunteered to hold a blinking light in an exposed position to mark a location for a night resupply drop, remaining steadfast in the enemy fire.[3]

In the predawn darkness of 15 May, McCloughan used a grenade to disable the enemy RPG position, and continued to fight and eliminate enemy soldiers, while treating multiple casualties. During the night, he kept two critically wounded soldiers alive before organizing the dead and wounded for daylight evacuation. McCloughan was credited with saving the lives of ten soldiers from his company during the actions of 13–15 May.

Video Courtesy : The White House
Public Domain