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Medal of Honor recipient Retired Army Maj. John J. Duffy.
Episode 2753 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Army Maj. John J. Duffy 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 Maj. John J. Duffy. It was submitted by Katie Lange, the outstanding writer for DOD News.
Lange, in her story, reported that Army Maj. John J. Duffy often operated behind enemy lines during his four tours of duty in Vietnam. During one of those deployments, he single-handedly saved a South Vietnamese battalion from decimation. Fifty years later, the Distinguished Service Cross he received for those actions was upgraded to the Medal of Honor.
Lange added this about John Duffy; he was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 16, 1938, and joined the Army in March 1955 when he was only 17. By 1963, he’d earned his commission as an officer and joined the 5th Special Forces Group as an elite Green Beret.
Duffy deployed to Vietnam four times during his career; in 1967, 1968, 1971 and 1973. It was during his third tour of duty that he earned the Medal of Honor.
In early April 1972, Duffy was a senior advisor to an elite battalion of the South Vietnamese army. When North Vietnamese forces tried to overrun Fire Support Base Charlie in the country’s Central Highlands, Duffy’s soldiers were tasked with holding off the battalion-sized unit.
Army Gen. Joseph M. Martin, the vice chief of staff of the Army, said “It was Major Duffy’s many heroic acts, including calling for strikes on his own position to allow his battalion to retreat, that enabled the escape. Major Duffy’s Vietnamese brothers … credit him with saving their battalion from complete annihilation.”
According to Duffy’s website , he was a founding member of the Special Operations Association and, in 2013, was inducted into the Infantry OCS Hall Of Fame at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Listen to episode 2753 and discover more about Army Maj. John J. Duffy and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.
