Vietnam War Medals of Honor: Above and Beyond the Call

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Seeing the captain standing unprotected on the bridge, Ouellet pushed him to safety. In the split second that followed the grenade’s landing, Ouellet placed himself between it and his shipmates, absorbing most of the blast fragments with his body. His heroic actions in protecting his shipmates, at the cost of his own life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Navy.

STEPHEN W. PLESS

Marine Captain Stephen W. Pless, from Newnan, Ga., received the Medal of Honor for action near Quang Ngai on August 19, 1967. Serving as a Bell UH-1E pilot during an armed escort mission, Pless monitored an emergency call indicating that the downed crew of another American helicopter was stranded on a nearby beach and in danger of being overwhelmed by VC.

Pless flew to the scene and saw a group of about 40 enemy troops, some of whom were clubbing and bayoneting the crewmen. He quickly launched a rocket attack, killing or wounding many of the VC and driving back the rest. Seeing one wounded American gesturing for help, Pless maneuvered his helicopter into position between the crewmen and the enemy, shielding them from the intense VC fire long enough for the chopper crew to retrieve the three crewmen who were still alive. When the wounded men were all aboard, Pless skillfully maneuvered his dangerously overloaded chopper back to base. Unfortunately, only one of the wounded crewmen survived his injuries, but Pless surely saved the lives of that man as well as his own crewmen through his heroic efforts.

LANCE SIJAN

Lance Sijan was a U.S. Air Force captain who flew combat missions over North Vietnam. He told friends he had a premonition he would be shot down and hunted like an animal. On November 9, 1967, Captain Sijan was flying a mission out of Da Nang. An electrical problem caused the plane’s bombs to explode near the aircraft, ripping it apart. Sijan ejected in total darkness. His helmet, parachute and auxiliary survival pack tore away as he landed.

More than 24 hours later, Sijan awoke in severe pain. The fingers of his right hand were bent back almost to his wrist and he had also suffered a multiple fracture of his left leg. Sijan propped himself up and turned on his radio. Around daybreak, a U.S. pilot heard his directional beeps. Soon, rescue helicopters were on their way, but Sijan could not be seen from the air, and when the helicopters flew low to determine where the beeps were coming from, they encountered enemy fire. Near dusk, Sijan saw treetops churning. ‘Drop the penetrator,’ he radioed. The cable landed on the jungle floor, 20 feet from him. ‘I see it,’ Sijan radioed. ‘I’ll crawl to it.’ Despite his severe injuries, he began slowly dragging himself across inhospitable ground. Hearing nothing, the operations commander ordered the helicopter to try again to contact Sijan. When there was no response, the chopper returned to its base. Sijan turned on his radio just in time to hear an Air Force pilot say, ‘We’ll be back in the morning.’

At dawn, a rescue helicopter radioed Sijan, indicating that it was ready to retrieve him. But Sijan, by now unconscious, failed to respond. Rescue crews concluded he had either been captured or was dead.

Sijan awoke the next day and, seeing a valley in the distance, began crawling toward it, eating bugs along the way to stay alive. NVA soldiers eventually found him 46 days after his plane had exploded.

Seemingly near death, Sijan was dumped on a mat and assigned only one guard. Sijan whispered something to draw the guard close to him, then knocked the guard out cold with a karate chop and crawled back into the jungle.

Soon recaptured, he was taken to what was known as ‘Bamboo Prison,’ where he was interrogated. Sijan refused to provide any information that could in any way be useful to the NVA. He was thrown into a cell with other captured American pilots and immediately began plotting his escape. Tortured repeatedly, he steadfastly refused to divulge classified information. The three American fliers were eventually transferred to a Hanoi prison.

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Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Conflicts, People, Vietnam War

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