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Army Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Leonard, Medal of Honor recipient.
Episode 2755 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Army SFC Matthew Leonard 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 SFC Matthew Leonard. It was submitted by Katie Lange, the outstanding writer for DOD News.
Lange, in her story, reported that Army Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Leonard had completed nearly 20 years of service when he died in a firefight in the jungles of Vietnam. He sacrificed his life to save his platoon, and for that he earned the Medal of Honor.
Lange added this about Leonard; he was born Nov. 26, 1929, in Eutaw, Alabama. Not a lot has been published about his family or childhood, but Leonard was a Boy Scout who went to Ullman High School in Birmingham. His wife told a newspaper that as a teen, he worked at a drugstore for $15 a week to help his mother pay the bills.
Leonard enlisted in the Army in 1947 when he was in 11th grade. Shortly after that, he married his grade-school sweetheart, Lois. Over the next few years, they had five children, three girls and two boys.
Leonard served as a drill sergeant and trained young recruits at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. But as the war in Vietnam broke out, Leonard’s wife said he struggled to watch those young recruits, who weren’t much older than his sons, go to war and die. So, even though he was close to retirement, he volunteered to deploy in the hope of making a difference.
On Feb. 28, 1967, Leonard was serving as platoon sergeant for Company B of the 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division.
Listen to episode 2755 and discover more about Army SFC Matthew Leonard and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.
