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Medal of Honor recipient Army Spc. 4th Class Daniel Fernandez.
Episode 2741 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Army Spec. Daniel Fernandez and his Congressional Medal of Honor award. The featured story comes from The U.S. Department of Defense website and was titled: Medal of Honor Monday: Army Spec. Daniel Fernandez. It was submitted by Katie Lange, the outstanding writer for DOD News.
Lange, in her story, reported that of the more than 260 service members who received the Medal of Honor for actions taken in Vietnam, not many volunteered for their tour of duty in Vietnam.
Army Spec. 4th Class Daniel Fernandez volunteered for his second stint there. It was a choice that led to his death, but the soldiers he saved will never forget his sacrifice.
Lange added this about Daniel Fernandez, he was born on June 30, 1944, and grew up on a farm with an orchard in Los Lunas, New Mexico, just south of Albuquerque. He was the oldest of four children and loved to ride horses.
Fernandez was part of Company C, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, when he joined the Army in 1962, before the conflict in Vietnam intensified. But his family said he believed in the cause so much that he volunteered for a second tour of duty.
On Feb. 18, 1966, Fernandez was about eight months into that second tour when his patrol was ambushed by Viet Cong forces near Cu Chi, a suburb of Saigon. The area was famous for the underground tunnels the Viet Cong dug there and used as their headquarters.
During the ambush, Fernandez’s patrol was forced out of its location by intense enemy fire before they could evacuate a wounded soldier.
Listen to episode 2741 and discover more about Army Spec. Daniel Fernandez and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.
