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Medal of Honor recipient Army PFC John Andrew Barnes III
Episode 2808 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Army PFC John Andrew Barnes III and his Congressional Medal of Honor award. The featured story appeared on the Wikipedia website and was titled: John Andrew Barnes III. The story was submitted by an anonymous writer to Wikipedia.
Barnes was born in Boston, Massachusetts on April 16, 1945. When he was two years old, he was adopted by John A. Barnes, Jr. and his wife, Katherine. Their 18-year-old daughter, Carson, was a freshman in college at the time. From a young age, Barnes expressed an interest in joining the Army.
Shortly after graduating from Dedham High School, Barnes enlisted in the United States Army and went through basic training at Fort Pickett. He served for a year in Santo Domingo during the Dominican Civil War.
Barnes was sent to Vietnam as part of the 173rd Airborne Brigade on May 31, 1966. He was assigned to Company C of the 1st Battalion, 503d Infantry, he was a grenadier. Soldiers of the brigade became involved in Operation Attleboro in fall of 1966, an operation that started out as a small search and destroy mission north of Saigon but eventually involved 22,000 troops from 21 battalions. After serving one tour in Vietnam, Barnes went home, but volunteered to return to Vietnam and was sent back in the fall of 1967.
On November 12, 1967, while patrolling in Dak To District of Kon Tum Province during the Battle of Dak To, Barnes’ unit was attacked by a North Vietnamese battalion. During the battle, Barnes manned a machine gun that had lost its crew to enemy fire and was credited with nine enemy kills. While retrieving more ammunition, Barnes dived on top of a grenade that had landed among American wounded in order to use his body to protect them from the blast. The grenade exploded, killing Barnes.
Listen to episode 2808 and discover more about Army PFC John Andrew Barnes III and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.
