Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Army Pfc. Garfield M. Langhorn posthumously earned the Medal of Honor for saving the lives of his fellow soldiers in Vietnam.
Episode 2707 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Vietnam Vet Army PFC Garfield Langhorn 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 PFC Garfield Langhorn. It was submitted by Katie Lange, a writer for DOD News.
Lange in her story reported that according to DoD documents, Army Pfc. Garfield McConnell Langhorn was only 20 years old when he lost his life fighting in Vietnam. He sacrificed himself to save his fellow soldiers from harm in an act of valor that earned him the Medal of Honor.
Lange also reported that Langhorn was born to Garfield and Mary Langhorn in Cumberland, Virginia, on Sept. 10, 1948. At some point, the family —his parents, him and his two sisters— moved to Riverhead, a town on Long Island, New York.
As a young man, Langhorn was a devout Christian who served as an usher at his church. He graduated from Riverside High School in 1967 and worked for Suffolk County, New York, before being drafted into the Army in 1968.
Langhorn was assigned to the 7th Squadron, 17th Cavalry of the 1st Aviation Brigade. He deployed to Vietnam in November 1968,
On Jan. 15, 1969, Pfc. Langhorn was serving as a radio operator with Troop C, which was inserted into a landing zone near Plei Djereng, Vietnam. The platoon was on a mission to rescue two U.S. AH-1G Cobra helicopter pilots who had been shot down by enemy fire on a heavily wooded slope.
While the platoon’s soldiers hacked their way through dense jungle to get to the wreckage, Langhorn coordinated with command-and-control aircraft overhead. Unfortunately, when they got to the wreckage site, they found both pilots dead.
Listen to episode 2707 and discover more about Vietnam Vet Army PFC Garfield Langhorn and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.
