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Marine Corps Pfc. Jedh Barker. Barker was promoted to lance corporal after he died in Vietnam saving the lives of his comrades. His actions earned him the Medal of Honor.
Episode 2730 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Marine Lance Cpl. Jedh Barker 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: Marine Lance Cpl. Jedh Barker. It was submitted by Katie Lange, a writer for DOD News.
Lange, in her story, reported that Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jedh Colby Barker left behind a promising college career to join the service during the Vietnam War. He never came home, but the lives he saved through his heroic actions earned him the Medal of Honor.
Lange added this about Barker; Barker was born on June 20, 1945, in Franklin, New Hampshire, just as World War II was ending. When he was six, his parents moved him and his five siblings to Park Ridge, New Jersey.
Barker was a natural-born athlete. He was the captain of Park Ridge High School’s football and baseball teams. According to the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Foundation, he was also on the school’s track and basketball teams and belonged to the choir.
After high school, Barker went to Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey before transferring to Northeast Missouri State Teachers College (now called Truman State University) in Kirksville, Missouri, to play football.
By the spring of 1966, the war in Vietnam was escalating, so on June 20, Barker enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve.
In June 1967, Pfc. Barker was sent to Vietnam and reassigned as a machine gunner with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, 3rd Marine Division.
A few months later, the young Marine would be put to the ultimate test.
Listen to episode 2730 and discover more about Vietnam Vet Marine Lance Cpl. Jedh Barker and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.
