Vietnam Veteran News

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Medal of Honor recipient Army SFC Félix Conde Falcón

Congressional Medal of Honor

Episode 2821 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature Army SFC Félix Conde Falcón and his Congressional Medal of Honor award. Information featured in this episode appeared in Wikipedia.

Medal of Honor recipient Felix M. Conde-Falcon was born in Juncos, Puerto Rico, Feb. 24, 1938, and raised in Chicago, Ill. He volunteered to join the U.S. Army in April 1963.

Conde-Falcon distinguished himself on April 4, 1969, while serving as a platoon leader during a sweep operation in the vicinity of Ap Tan Hoa, Vietnam, April 4, 1969. Conde-Falcon was killed in action that day after destroying multiple enemy bunkers and demonstrating extraordinary leadership under fire. He left behind a wife and two children.

Conde-Falcon received the Medal of Honor, March 18, 2014; Bronze Star Medal with “V” Device and one Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster, Army Commendation Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal with three Bronze Service Stars, Combat Infantryman Badge, Sharpshooter Marksmanship Badge with Auto Rifle Bar, Expert Marksmanship Badge with Rifle Bar, Marksman Badge with Pistol Bar, Drill Sergeant Identification Badge, Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation with Palm Device, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal with “60” Device, Republic of Vietnam Merit Medal, Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation with Palm Device, Republic of Vietnam Civil Actions Honor Medal Unit Citation, First Class with Oak Leaf Cluster

According to his Medal of Honor citation, Conde Falcón’s great courage, his ability to act appropriately and decisively in accomplishing his mission, his dedication to the welfare of his men mark him as an outstanding leader Conde Falcon’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty, at the cost of his life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.

Listen to episode 2821 and discover more about Army SFC Félix Conde Falcón and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.

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Medal of Honor recipient Marine PFC Ronald L. Coker

Congressional Medal of Honor

Episode 2820 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature Marine PFC Ronald L. Coker and his Congressional Medal of Honor award. Information featured in this episode appeared in Wikipedia. Ronald Leroy Coker was born on August 9, 1947. He died on March 24, 1969. He was a United States Marine who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for heroism in Vietnam in March 1969.

Coker was born in Alliance, Nebraska. He attended District 78 Rural Elementary School in Alliance, Alliance High School, and Denver Colorado Automotive School.

Drafted by the Selective Service Board in Alliance, he entered the United States Marine Corps at Denver, Colorado on April 16, 1968.

He completed recruit training with the 1st Recruit Training Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment, Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California, in June 1968; individual combat training with Company Z, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Training Regiment, Camp Pendleton, California, in July 1968; and basic infantry training with Rifle Training Company, Basic Infantry Training Battalion, 2d Infantry Training Regiment at Camp Pendleton, in August. He was promoted to private first class on September 1, 1968.

Private First Class Coker then joined a replacement company, Staging Battalion, at Camp Pendleton, for transfer to the Republic of Vietnam.

Upon his arrival in Vietnam, in November 1968, he was assigned duty as a rifleman with Company M, 3rd Battalion 3rd Marines, 3rd Marine Division. While serving in this capacity, he was killed in action in the northwest section of Quang Tri Province, on March 24, 1969.

His Medal of honor citation said that Private First Class Coker’s indomitable courage, inspiring initiative and selfless devotion to duty upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

Listen to episode 2820 and discover more about Marine PFC Ronald L. Coker and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.

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Medal of Honor recipient Marine PFC Bruce W. Carter

Congressional Medal of Honor

Episode 2819 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature Marine PFC Bruce W. Carter and his Congressional Medal of Honor award. Information featured in this episode appeared in Wikipedia and a story titled: Marine Who Earned Medal of Honor in Vietnam Finally Receives Burial at Arlington that came from the Military.com website. That story was submitted by Richard Sisk. He has more than 45 years of journalism experience in reporting and editing in the U.S. and abroad for United Press International, the N.Y. Daily News and now for Military.com.

Bruce Wayne Carter (May 7, 1950 – August 7, 1969) was a United States Marine who was killed in action during the Vietnam War. He posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his heroism.

In August 1969, his unit was ambushed outside of Vandegrift Combat Base in Quang Tri Province. Carter had stopped the enemy’s advance when a grenade landed between him and his fellow Marines – Carter threw himself on the grenade, sacrificing his life to save the lives of others.

At age 19, Marine Pfc. Bruce Carter fought off a swarming enemy in 1969, then threw his body on a grenade to save his buddies during a close-quarters battle in Vietnam’s Quang Tri province.

His actions with H Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, earned him a posthumous Medal of Honor, and he was laid to rest at Vista Memorial Gardens in Miami Lakes, Florida.

Over the years, his mother, Georgie Carter-Krell, came to think that it would be best for her son’s memory to have his final resting place be with more than 400,000 of the nation’s heroes at Arlington National Cemetery.

Listen to episode 2819 and discover more about Marine PFC Bruce W. Carter and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.

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Medal of Honor recipient Navy HM3 Wayne Maurice Caron

Congressional Medal of Honor

Episode 2818 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature Navy HM3 Wayne Maurice Caron and his Congressional Medal of Honor award. Information featured in this episode appeared in Wikipedia and the American Legion.

Wayne Maurice Caron, 22, was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Aime Caron of 48 East Main Street, Middleboro, MA. He was the husband of Teresa Caron and father of Scott Wayne Caron. He was born November 2, 1946 and graduated from Middleboro High School with the Class of 1966. He enlisted in the Navy on July 12, 1966 and was killed on July 28, 1968.

He joined the U.S. Navy on July 12, 1966, at Boston. He completed recruit training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center and then Navy Hospital Corps School, at Great Lakes, Illinois. He also completed the Field Medical Service School at Camp Pendleton, California. On January 16, 1968, he was promoted to hospital corpsman third class.

On July 3, 1968, he was sent to and arrived in Vietnam. He was assigned to Headquarters and Service Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. On July 28, he was killed in action during an intense firefight while serving as a platoon corpsman with K Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines in Quảng Nam Province, South Vietnam. Before he was killed, he was wounded three separate times in the firefight by enemy fire while he moved to render aid to fallen Marines. The 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines lost 18 Marines besides Caron that day.

A United States Navy destroyer the USS Caron (DD970) was named after Wayne Maurice Caron. On September 17,1997 grade five students from the Rogers Middle School in Rockland planted a black locust as a living memorial to honor HM3 Caron in the Shea Field Memorial Grove at the former US Naval Air station in South Weymouth, Massachusetts.

Listen to episode 2818 and discover more about Navy HM3 Wayne Maurice Caron and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.

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Army Special Forces Medal of Honor Recipient Army SGT Brian L. Buker

Congressional Medal of Honor

Episode 2817 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Army SGT Brian L. Buker and his Congressional Medal of Honor award. The featured story appeared on the Greater Good News website and was submitted by Dan Doyle.

Dan Doyle is a husband, father, grandfather, Vietnam veteran, and retired professor of Humanities at Seattle University. He taught 13 years at the high school level and 22 years at the university level. He spends his time now babysitting his granddaughter. He is a poet and a blogger as well. Dan holds an AA degree in English Literature, a BA in Comparative Literature, and an MA in Theology, and writes regularly for The Veterans Site Blog.

In his story about Brian L. Buker, he reported that The Vietnam War had been going on for close to 10 years when Brian L. Buker graduated from Lawrence H.S. in Fairfield, Maine, in 1968. His three older brothers had already served in Vietnam, so it was not unusual that he would want to go into the military himself. He entered the U.S. Army just after his 17th birthday and requested to enter the Army’s Special Forces Training.

By April 5, 1970, Buker was serving as a sergeant in Detachment B-55, 5th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces. On that day, he was acting as a platoon advisor for a Vietnamese mobile strike force company on a mission in Chau Doc Province, Republic of Vietnam. When his platoon came under intense fire, he single-handedly destroyed one enemy bunker, was seriously wounded, and then destroyed another bunker despite these wounds. He was killed later in the battle as he reorganized his soldiers.

In 2010, Buker’s family donated his Medal of Honor to his alma mater, Lawrence High School in Fairfield, Maine, “so future generations will know who he was and what he did for his country.”

Listen to episode 2817 and discover more about Army SGT Brian L. Buker and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.

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Medal of Honor recipient CPT Paul Bucha

Congressional Medal of Honor

Episode 2816 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature Army CPT Paul Bucha, his Congressional Medal of Honor award and his life of service. Information about him included in this episode comes Wikipedia and a piece about him from the Thayer Leadership Organization.

It was reported that: Paul William Bucha (born August 1, 1943) is an American Vietnam War veteran and a recipient of the Medal of Honor. He was a foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Bucha is of Croatian descent; his paternal grandfather immigrated to the United States from the Croatian town of Našice. He graduated from Ladue Horton Watkins High School in 1961. An all-American swimmer in high school, Bucha was offered athletic scholarships to several universities but turned them down and attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. After graduation he earned a Master of Business Administration at Stanford University before beginning his military career at Fort Campbell.

Bucha was sent to Vietnam in 1967 as a captain and commander of Company D, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment. On March 16, 1968, he and his company of 89 men were dropped by helicopter southwest of Phước Vĩnh, in Bình Dương Province.

According to the Thayer article, Bucha resigned his Army commission in 1972. Paul Bucha joined du Pont Glore Forgan as a special assistant to H. Ross Perot in 1972 and later moved to the Perot owned Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS) as Senior Vice President of International Operations. In 1973, Paul Bucha established the new EDS headquarters in Teheran, Iran, and remained in the Middle East until 1978 having expanded the operations throughout the Middle East and Europe.

As a member of the Board of Directors of WHX Corporation, he was asked to assume the title of Chairman of Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel Corporation in 1996 to preside over the reorganization of the company.

Listen to episode 2816 and discover more about Army CPT Paul Bucha, his Congressional Medal of Honor award and his life of service.

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Medal of Honor recipient Army SSG Hammett L. Bowen Jr.

Congressional Medal of Honor

Episode 2815 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature Army SSG Hammett L. Bowen Jr.and his Congressional Medal of Honor award. Information about him included in this episode comes Wikipedia and a story about him titled: In Ocala, Remembering The Bowens’ Sacrifices In Vietnam And Afterward that appeared on PBS station WUFT. That story was submitted by Quan McWil.

It was reported that: Hammett Lee Bowen Jr. was born on November 30, 1947, and died on June 27, 1969. He was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the United States military’s highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in the Vietnam War.

Bowen joined the Army from Jacksonville, Florida in 1965, and received basic training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He then was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia, to attend the Non-Commissioned Officer Course (NCOC). He was in Class 4–68, where he graduated as an infantryman NCO. By June 27, 1969, was serving as a staff sergeant in Company C, 2d Battalion, 14th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. On that day, in Bình Dương Province, South Vietnam, during Operation Toan Thang III, Bowen smothered the blast of an enemy-thrown hand grenade with his body, sacrificing himself to protect those around him.

A portion of his Medal of Honor Citation reads as follows: As the platoon was moving back, an enemy grenade was thrown amid S/Sgt. Bowen and 3 of his men. Sensing the danger to his comrades, S/Sgt. Bowen shouted a warning to his men and hurled himself on the grenade, absorbing the explosion with his body while saving the lives of his fellow soldiers. S/Sgt. Bowen’s extraordinary courage and concern for his men at the cost of his life served as an inspiration to his comrades and are in the highest traditions of the military service and the U.S. Army.[2]

Hammett Bowen’s Medal of Honor and other memorabilia about his life are on display in the lobby of the Hammett Bowen Operations Center for the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. Ocala Florida. Hammett Bowen Jr. Elementary School in Ocala, Florida, is named in his honor.

Listen to episode 2815 and discover more about Army SSG Hammett L. Bowen Jr. and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.

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Medal of Honor recipient Army MSG James Leroy Bondsteel

Congressional Medal of Honor

Episode 2814 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Army MSG James Leroy Bondsteel and his Congressional Medal of Honor award. The featured story appeared on the History Net website and was titled: James Leroy Bondsteel. This article appeared on Wikipedia and was submitted by an anonymous writer.

In the story it was reported that: James Leroy Bondsteel was born in Jackson, Michigan to Betty Jean Daisy and her fiancé, Kenneth Bondsteel. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1965 after graduating from Jonesville High School in Jonesville, Michigan.

Bondsteel enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1965 and was sent to Korea where he contributed his time to an orphanage. When his hitch in the Marine Corps ended, he then enlisted the United States Army, serving until his retirement in 1985. In 1969, he was deployed to Vietnam with Company A, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division where he received the Medal of Honor for his actions occurring May 24, 1969 near An Lộc, South Vietnam during Operation Toan Thang III. During his time in Vietnam, Bondsteel learned to speak Vietnamese and could differentiate between different regional dialects.

Parts of Bondsteel’s Medal of Honor Citation read as follows:  His exemplary leadership and great personal courage throughout the 4-hour battle ensured the success of his own and nearby units, and resulted in the saving of numerous lives of his fellow soldiers. By individual acts of bravery he destroyed 10 enemy bunkers and accounted for a large toll of the enemy, including 2 key enemy commanders. His extraordinary heroism at the risk of his life was in the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon him, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

Listen to episode 2814 and discover more about Army MSG James Leroy Bondsteel and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.

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Medal of Honor recipient Army SP4 Michael Reinert Blanchfield

Congressional Medal of Honor

Episode 2813 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Army Sp4 Michael Reinert Blanchfield and his Congressional Medal of Honor award. The featured story appeared on the History Net website and was titled: Michael R. Blanchfield. This article appeared on Wikipedia and was submitted by an anonymous writer.

In the story it was reported that: Michael Reinert Blanchfield was born on January 4, 1950 and died on July 3, 1969. He served as a United States Army soldier and was a recipient of the United States military’s highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in the Vietnam War.

During a search and destroy operation in Binh Dinh Province, Blanchfield confronted a Viet Cong militant, who threw two grenades at him and his fellow soldiers. After being injured by the first grenade, Blanchfield threw himself on the second grenade and saved his fellow soldier’s lives.

Blanchfield joined the Army from Chicago, Illinois in 1967, and by July 3, 1969, was serving as a Specialist Four in Company A, 4th Battalion, 503d Infantry, 173d Airborne Brigade. On that day, in Binh Dinh Province, Republic of Vietnam, Blanchfield smothered the blast of a hand grenade with his body, sacrificing himself to protect those around him. Blanchfield, aged 19 at his death, was buried in All Saints Cemetery at Des Plaines, Illinois.

Portions of Blanchfield’s Medal of Honor citation stated: By his gallant action and self-sacrifice, he was able to save the lives and prevent injury to four members of the patrol and several Vietnamese civilians in the immediate area. extraordinary courage and gallantry at the cost of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

Listen to episode 2813 and discover more about Army Sp4 Michael Reinert Blanchfield and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.

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Medal of honor recipient Army Combat Medic Thomas W. Bennett

Episode 2812 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about Army Combat Medic Thomas W. Bennett and his Congressional Medal of Honor award. The featured story appeared on the History Net website and was titled: A Conscientious Objector’s Medal of Honor. This article was written by Edward F. Murphy and originally published in the June 2003 issue of Vietnam Magazine.

In his story Murphy reported that: The Vietnam War presented many young men with a moral dilemma as they became subject to the draft in the late 1960s. These were men whose deep-seated religious convictions held that killing was wrong, even in war. At the same time, a number of them also possessed a strong sense of patriotism and felt that service to one’s country was a vital duty. One youngster torn by those conflicting values was Thomas W. Bennett of Morgantown, West Virginia.

Tom Bennett saw himself as a moderator. Though raised as a Southern Baptist, he openly embraced the validity of all religions — hence his activities in the ecumenical council. He wanted devotees of different religions to share their similarities rather than face off over their differences. To learn more about different religions, he began attending services of different faiths, visiting some churches so often that parishioners thought he was one of them. Through these experiences his belief in the sanctity of human life solidified — a frequent theme when he preached at his own church.

On April 7, 1970, Tom Bennett’s 23rd birthday, President Richard M. Nixon presented his posthumous Medal of Honor to his mother and stepfather. When first notified of the award, Thus Thomas W. Bennett became the only conscientious objector to earn the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War.

Listen to episode 2812 and discover more about Army Combat Medic Thomas W. Bennett and his Congressional Medal of Honor award.