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 1. 
 2. Military News


50 YEARS LATER, FOUR VIETNAM VETS AWARDED MEDALS OF HONOR IN WHITE HOUSE
CEREMONY



President Joe Biden awards the Medal of Honor to retired Maj. John Duffy for his
actions on April 14-15 1972, during the Vietnam War, during a ceremony in the
East Room of the White House, Tuesday, July 5, 2022, in Washington. (AP
Photo/Evan Vucci)
5 Jul 2022
Military.com | By Rebecca Kheel

Spc. 5 Dwight Birdwell didn't want to die, but he was ready to as he fought his
way through an enemy ambush at an air base near Saigon.

For Maj. John Duffy, calling in airstrikes from a location close to enemy
positions even as he was wounded was just part of the job.




And when the children of Staff Sgt. Edward Kaneshiro heard their father had
single-handedly cleared an enemy trench so his men could safely withdraw, they
were inspired to "be a better person, to be courageous and to have integrity."

Read Next: Space Force Launches New Intelligence Unit as Congress Voices
Concerns over Growth

"He didn't even think about himself," Kaneshiro's daughter, Naomi Viloria, told
Military.com on Sunday. "He just had one mission, and that was trying to save
his unit. It was duty to country."

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On Tuesday, Birdwell, Duffy and Kaneshiro, as well as Spc. 5 Dennis Fujii, were
awarded the Medal of Honor by President Joe Biden for "acts of gallantry and
intrepidity" during the Vietnam War, earning the nation's highest military honor
after a 50-year wait. For Kaneshiro, the honor is posthumous; he was killed on
the battlefield months after his heroic actions.


Medal of Honor recipients clockwise from left, Spc. 5 Dwight Birdwell; Spc. 5
Dennis Fujii; Staff Sgt. Edward Kaneshiro; and Maj. John Duffy. (U.S. Army
composite image from courtesy photos)

During the White House ceremony, Biden said the medals were about "setting the
record straight" and giving the Army veterans the level of recognition they
deserve after so many years.

"There's been a long journey to this day for those heroes and their families,
and more than 50 years have passed -- 50 years -- since the jungles of Vietnam,
where as young men, these soldiers first proved their mettle," Biden said. "But
time has not diminished their astonishing bravery, their selflessness in putting
the lives of others ahead of their own, and the gratitude that we as a nation
owe them."

Birdwell, sharing his thoughts in a call with Military.com that included
Viloria, her brother John, and Duffy, ahead of the ceremony, was stoic about the
wait.

“Somebody told me long ago these things often take time,” he said.


President Biden presents the Medal of Honor to Staff Sgt. Edward Kaneshiro for
his actions on Dec. 1, 1966, during the Vietnam War, as his son John Kaneshiro
accepts the posthumous recognition during a ceremony in the East Room of the
White House, July 5, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Kaneshiro's children, after reading in a newspaper that their father had first
been recommended for a Medal of Honor in 1966, wrote a letter to their senator
in 1990. When nothing came of that, they wrote another letter to a different
senator in 2011.

Two weeks after his wife and their mother died in April, Kaneshiro's children
got a call that their father's record was being reviewed and, a few weeks after
that, Biden called to say he was getting the Medal of Honor, Viloria said during
the phone call.

Their mother didn't talk about her husband at all after he died because her
"grief was just so profound," but the children found out about his heroism from
other family members and newspaper accounts, Viloria said. John Kaneshiro, who
accepted the medal Tuesday on his family's behalf, credited his father with
inspiring his own service in the Army.

On Dec. 1, 1966, Kaneshiro and his team entered a village near Phu Huu 2 on a
search-and-destroy mission. There, they were ambushed by a large North
Vietnamese contingent that had fortified the village with a camouflaged trench
and bunker system.

A hail of gunfire killed his platoon leader and several other soldiers, and two
other squads were pinned down. Realizing the only way anyone would survive was
to stop the gunfire, Kaneshiro directed his men to cover him and crawled alone
toward the trench.

While still on the ground, he lobbed a grenade that killed the North Vietnamese
gunner. Then, he hopped in the trench and worked his way down its entire
35-meter length, eliminating one group of enemy fighters with his rifle and two
more enemy groups with grenades.

His actions were credited with allowing for the "orderly extradition and
reorganization of the platoon which ultimately led to a successful withdrawal
from the village," according to the award citation read at the ceremony.

Kaneshiro continued serving in Vietnam until he was killed by enemy gunfire on
March 6, 1967.

"Today, his memory lives on in the lives he saved, in the legend of his
fearlessness and the hearts of the family he left behind," Biden said. "Your
family's sacrificed so much for our country. I know that no award can ever make
up for the loss of your father, for not having him there as you grew up. But I
hope today, you take some pride and comfort in knowing his valor is finally
receiving the full recognition it's always deserved."


President Joe Biden awards the Medal of Honor to Spc. Dwight Birdwell for his
actions on Jan. 31, 1968, during the Vietnam War, during a ceremony in the East
Room of the White House, Tuesday, July 5, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan
Vucci)

As Birdwell reflected on getting the Medal of Honor, he expressed pride not for
himself, but for the 25th Infantry Division and for the Cherokee Nation, of
which he is a member.

"It brings honor and respect not only to the Cherokee Nation, but the Cherokee
people," said Birdwell, who served as the chief justice of the Cherokee Nation's
Supreme Court for a couple of years in the '90s.

Birdwell's award comes for actions on the first day of what would become known
as the Tet Offensive.

On Jan. 31, 1968, a large element of North Vietnamese fighters attacked the Tan
Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon, and Birdwell's unit was ringed by enemy fighters.
Most of his unit's vehicles were destroyed or disabled, and his tank commander
was incapacitated after being hit by enemy bullets.

Without hesitation, Birdwell moved the commander aside and took over, firing the
tank's cannon, machine gun and his rifle. When he used up all the ammunition in
the tank, he dismounted and went to get two machine guns and ammunition from a
helicopter that had been downed by enemy fire.

When his machine gun was hit by enemy fire and exploded, he was wounded, but
refused to be evacuated and kept moving among disabled vehicles, collecting
ammunition that he handed out to his brothers in arms. When reinforcements came,
Birdwell helped evacuate the wounded until he was ordered to have his own wounds
attended to.

"At the time, Birdwell received the Silver Star for his outstanding heroism on
the battlefield," Biden said. "It took decades for his commanding officer,
then-Gen. Glenn Otis, to realize Birdwell had not received the full honor he had
earned. But in retirement, Gen. Otis made sure to correct the record and fully
document Birdwell's actions to make this day possible."

Birdwell said there was not much going through his mind during the battle
besides "fight, fight, fight," hoping to inflict as much damage on the enemy as
possible and hold out until help arrived.

"We have a saying in Oklahoma, something to the effect of, 'I want to go to
heaven, but just not right now,'" he said. "And I was ready to die that day, but
of course, I didn't want to do it then because I knew if I went down, it would
be easier for the enemy."

Birdwell was not fazed about 54 years passing between his actions and receiving
the Medal of Honor.

"There are still men alive who served on Jan. 31, 1968, and I'm happy to bring
honor to them, and it validates what they did that day," he said.


President Joe Biden awards the Medal of Honor to retired Maj. John Duffy for his
actions on April 14-15 1972, during the Vietnam War, during a ceremony in the
East Room of the White House, Tuesday, July 5, 2022, in Washington. (AP
Photo/Evan Vucci)

Duffy similarly brushed off the long wait to be honored.

"It was a different situation back then," Duffy said. "The war was ending,
American troops were pulling out, they were downplaying too much publicity, and
they were trying to withdraw in an orderly manner. And we were the last of the
fighters over there, the aircrews and advisers. So we understood the situation.
And we were not there to make glory and gain a medal."

Noting he was once nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry, Biden called
Duffy the "definition of a warrior poet and devotion to those he served with and
those who serve our nation still."

Duffy earned his medal for actions in a battle from April 14 to 15, 1972. Two
days earlier, his battalion commander had been killed, the battalion command
post was destroyed, and Duffy was twice wounded but refused to be evacuated.

Instead, on the morning of April 14 after efforts to establish a landing zone
for resupply aircraft, Duffy moved close to anti-aircraft positions to call in
airstrikes. He was again wounded, but still refused evacuation. When enemy
fighters launched a ground assault and a barrage of artillery fire in the
afternoon, Duffy moved from position to position to spot targets for gunship
fire.

On the morning of April 15 after an enemy ambush, Duffy led troops, including
many who were seriously wounded, to an evacuation area, where he continued to
direct gunship fire to enemy positions and marked a landing zone for
helicopters. He boarded a helicopter himself only after all the other evacuees
were aboard and, once on the helicopter, assisted a couple of the wounded.

"That was our job, and that's as simple as it is," Duffy said of his mindset
during the battle. "You're in control. You don't panic. You execute and make the
best decisions."


President Joe Biden awards the Medal of Honor to Spc. Dennis Fujii for his
actions on Feb. 18-22 1971, during the Vietnam War, during a ceremony in the
East Room of the White House, Tuesday, July 5, 2022, in Washington. (AP
Photo/Evan Vucci)

Fujii was awarded his medal for actions during a rescue mission in Laos and
Vietnam from February 18 to 22, 1971.

Fujii was crew chief aboard a helicopter ambulance that took enemy fire and
crash-landed in Laos. A second helicopter landed and took on everyone from the
crash -- except for Fujii. The enemy was directing fire at him, and he told the
other helicopter to leave him despite being injured.

"I knew that there was no way I could make it from where I was into the
chopper," Fujii said in a 2018 interview released by the Army. "And the longer I
stayed there and waited, I was putting everybody at risk so I just waved the
bird off."

Other efforts to retrieve him were called off because of heavy anti-aircraft
fire. Fujii became the lone American on the battlefield and treated injuries of
South Vietnamese allies throughout the night and next day.

Amid an enemy assault on the night of Feb. 19, Fujii found a radio transmitter
and called in American gunships to help repel the attack. For 17 straight hours,
he exposed himself to enemy fire to get better views of enemy troop positions
and call in airstrikes.

"At times, the fighting became so vicious that Spc. 5 Fujii was forced to
interrupt radio transmissions in order to place suppressive rifle fire on the
enemy while in close quarters," the citation read at Tuesday's ceremony said.

A U.S. helicopter was finally able to reach him on Feb. 20, but was hit and
forced to crash-land at a South Vietnamese base four kilometers from his
original location. A "totally exhausted" Fujii was at the allied camp for
another two days before he was finally evacuated to medical care, according to
his citation.

"Fujii downplayed his own contributions and honored the skills of the allied
Vietnamese troops he fought with, simply saying, 'I like my job. I like to help
other people who need help out there,'" Biden said. "It's amazing. Today, Spc. 5
Fujii, we remember and we celebrate just how many people you helped."

-- Rebecca Kheel can be reached at Rebecca.Kheel@Military.com. Follow her on
Twitter @reporterkheel

Related: WWII Medal of Honor Recipient to Lie in Honor at US Capitol

Show Full Article
Related Topics: Military Headlines Medal of Honor Awards Veterans Vietnam War
Heroism Military Heroes Army
© Copyright 2022 Military.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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