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Army Command Sgt. Major Gary Littrell, Medal of Honor recipient.
Episode 2724 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Army Command Sgt. Maj. Gary Littrell 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 Command Sgt. Maj. Gary Littrell. It was submitted by Katie Lange, a writer for DOD News.
Lange, in her story, reported that Army Command Sgt. Maj. Gary Littrell’s more than two decades in service can likely be summed up by his leadership during a precarious situation in Vietnam, where he earned the Medal of Honor. The skilled Ranger was advising a small battalion of soldiers when they got trapped on a hillside by an enemy 10 times their size..
Lange added this about Littrell; he was born Oct. 26, 1944, in Henderson, Kentucky. His mother died when he was 5, and his dad wasn’t around, so he ended up moving in with his grandparents on their farm.
When he was 9, Littrell’s uncle drove him about 90 miles to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to watch as soldiers demonstrated parachute jumps. Then and there, the young Kentuckian decided he wanted to be one of them. So, in 1961, one day after his 17th birthday, he joined the Army.
Littrell was deployed in 1962 to Okinawa to join the newly converted 173rd Airborne Brigade. While he was there, he married a local woman named Mitsue. They had two boys.
In 1965, Littrell was reassigned to the 82nd Airborne and sent back to the U.S. two days before the 173rd was ordered to Vietnam. Instead, he deployed with the 82nd to the Dominican Republic before returning home to attend Ranger School, graduating in 1966. Littrell remained an instructor there until 1969, when his orders to Vietnam came through.
Listen to episode 2724 and discover more about Vietnam Vet Army Command Sgt. Maj. Gary Littrell and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.
