Spc. 5 Dwight Birdwell did not need to die, however he was able to as he fought his manner via an enemy ambush at an air base close to Saigon.
For Maj. John Duffy, calling in airstrikes from a location near enemy positions at the same time as he was wounded was simply a part of the job.
And when the youngsters of Employees Sgt. Edward Kaneshiro heard their father had single-handedly cleared an enemy trench so his males may safely withdraw, they have been impressed to “be a greater individual, to be brave and to have integrity.”
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“He did not even take into consideration himself,” Kaneshiro’s daughter, Naomi Viloria, advised Army.com on Sunday. “He simply had one mission, and that was attempting to avoid wasting his unit. It was responsibility to nation.”
On Tuesday, Birdwell, Duffy and Kaneshiro, in addition to Spc. 5 Dennis Fujii, have been awarded the Medal of Honor by President Joe Biden for “acts of gallantry and intrepidity” in the course of the Vietnam Warfare, incomes the nation’s highest navy honor after a 50-year wait. For Kaneshiro, the honour is posthumous; he was killed on the battlefield months after his heroic actions.
Through the White Home ceremony, Biden mentioned the medals have been about “setting the report straight” and giving the Army veterans the extent of recognition they deserve after so a few years.
“There’s been a protracted journey to at the present time for these heroes and their households, and greater than 50 years have handed — 50 years — because the jungles of Vietnam, the place as younger males, these troopers first proved their mettle,” Biden mentioned. “However time has not diminished their astonishing bravery, their selflessness in placing the lives of others forward of their very own, and the gratitude that we as a nation owe them.”
Birdwell, sharing his ideas in a name with Army.com that included Viloria, her brother John, and Duffy, forward of the ceremony, was stoic concerning the wait.
“Any individual advised me way back this stuff usually take time,” he mentioned.
Kaneshiro’s youngsters, after studying in a newspaper that their father had first been advisable for a Medal of Honor in 1966, wrote a letter to their senator in 1990. When nothing got here of that, they wrote one other letter to a special senator in 2011.
Two weeks after his spouse and their mom died in April, Kaneshiro’s youngsters received a name that their father’s report was being reviewed and, a couple of weeks after that, Biden known as to say he was getting the Medal of Honor, Viloria mentioned in the course of the cellphone name.
Their mom did not discuss her husband in any respect after he died as a result of her “grief was simply so profound,” however the youngsters discovered about his heroism from different relations and newspaper accounts, Viloria mentioned. John Kaneshiro, who accepted the medal Tuesday on his household’s behalf, credited his father with inspiring his personal service within the Army.
On Dec. 1, 1966, Kaneshiro and his staff entered a village close to Phu Huu 2 on a search-and-destroy mission. There, they have been ambushed by a big North Vietnamese contingent that had fortified the village with a camouflaged trench and bunker system.
A hail of gunfire killed his platoon chief and a number of other different troopers, and two different squads have been pinned down. Realizing the one manner anybody would survive was to cease the gunfire, Kaneshiro directed his males to cowl him and crawled alone towards the ditch.
Whereas nonetheless on the bottom, he lobbed a grenade that killed the North Vietnamese gunner. Then, he hopped within the trench and labored his manner down its whole 35-meter size, eliminating one group of enemy fighters together with his rifle and two extra enemy teams with grenades.
His actions have been credited with permitting for the “orderly extradition and reorganization of the platoon which in the end led to a profitable withdrawal from the village,” in line with the award quotation learn on the ceremony.
Kaneshiro continued serving in Vietnam till he was killed by enemy gunfire on March 6, 1967.
“As we speak, his reminiscence lives on within the lives he saved, within the legend of his fearlessness and the hearts of the household he left behind,” Biden mentioned. “Your loved ones’s sacrificed a lot for our nation. I do know that no award can ever make up for the lack of your father, for not having him there as you grew up. However I hope at this time, you’re taking some delight and luxury in realizing his valor is lastly receiving the total recognition it is all the time deserved.”
As Birdwell mirrored on getting the Medal of Honor, he expressed delight not for himself, however for the twenty fifth Infantry Division and for the Cherokee Nation, of which he’s a member.
“It brings honor and respect not solely to the Cherokee Nation, however the Cherokee folks,” mentioned Birdwell, who served because the chief justice of the Cherokee Nation’s Supreme Court docket for a few years within the ’90s.
Birdwell’s award comes for actions on the primary day of what would develop into referred to as the Tet Offensive.
On Jan. 31, 1968, a big aspect of North Vietnamese fighters attacked the Tan Son Nhut Air Base close to Saigon, and Birdwell’s unit was ringed by enemy fighters. Most of his unit’s autos have been destroyed or disabled, and his tank commander was incapacitated after being hit by enemy bullets.
With out hesitation, Birdwell moved the commander apart and took over, firing the tank’s cannon, machine gun and his rifle. When he used up all of the ammunition within the tank, he dismounted and went to get two machine weapons and ammunition from a helicopter that had been downed by enemy fireplace.
When his machine gun was hit by enemy fireplace and exploded, he was wounded, however refused to be evacuated and stored shifting amongst disabled autos, amassing ammunition that he handed out to his brothers in arms. When reinforcements got here, Birdwell helped evacuate the wounded till he was ordered to have his personal wounds attended to.
“On the time, Birdwell acquired the Silver Star for his excellent heroism on the battlefield,” Biden mentioned. “It took a long time for his commanding officer, then-Gen. Glenn Otis, to comprehend Birdwell had not acquired the total honor he had earned. However in retirement, Gen. Otis made certain to right the report and absolutely doc Birdwell’s actions to make at the present time potential.”
Birdwell mentioned there was not a lot going via his thoughts in the course of the battle moreover “combat, combat, combat,” hoping to inflict as a lot harm on the enemy as potential and maintain out till assist arrived.
“We’ve got a saying in Oklahoma, one thing to the impact of, ‘I need to go to heaven, however simply not proper now,'” he mentioned. “And I used to be able to die that day, however after all, I did not need to do it then as a result of I knew if I went down, it might be simpler for the enemy.”
Birdwell was not fazed about 54 years passing between his actions and receiving the Medal of Honor.
“There are nonetheless males alive who served on Jan. 31, 1968, and I am glad to deliver honor to them, and it validates what they did that day,” he mentioned.
Duffy equally disregarded the lengthy wait to be honored.
“It was a special scenario again then,” Duffy mentioned. “The struggle was ending, American troops have been pulling out, they have been downplaying an excessive amount of publicity, they usually have been attempting to withdraw in an orderly method. And we have been the final of the fighters over there, the aircrews and advisers. So we understood the scenario. And we weren’t there to make glory and achieve a medal.”
Noting he was as soon as nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry, Biden known as Duffy the “definition of a warrior poet and devotion to these he served with and those that serve our nation nonetheless.”
Duffy earned his medal for actions in a battle from April 14 to fifteen, 1972. Two days earlier, his battalion commander had been killed, the battalion command submit was destroyed, and Duffy was twice wounded however refused to be evacuated.
As an alternative, on the morning of April 14 after efforts to determine a touchdown zone for resupply plane, Duffy moved near anti-aircraft positions to name in airstrikes. He was once more wounded, however nonetheless refused evacuation. When enemy fighters launched a floor assault and a barrage of artillery fireplace within the afternoon, Duffy moved from place to place to identify targets for gunship fireplace.
On the morning of April 15 after an enemy ambush, Duffy led troops, together with many who have been severely wounded, to an evacuation space, the place he continued to direct gunship fireplace to enemy positions and marked a touchdown zone for helicopters. He boarded a helicopter himself solely in any case the opposite evacuees have been aboard and, as soon as on the helicopter, assisted a few the wounded.
“That was our job, and that is so simple as it’s,” Duffy mentioned of his mindset in the course of the battle. “You are in management. You do not panic. You execute and make the perfect choices.”
Fujii was awarded his medal for actions throughout a rescue mission in Laos and Vietnam from February 18 to 22, 1971.
Fujii was crew chief aboard a helicopter ambulance that took enemy fireplace and crash-landed in Laos. A second helicopter landed and took on everybody from the crash — aside from Fujii. The enemy was directing fireplace at him, and he advised the opposite helicopter to go away him regardless of being injured.
“I knew that there was no manner I may make it from the place I used to be into the chopper,” Fujii mentioned in a 2018 interview launched by the Army. “And the longer I stayed there and waited, I used to be placing everyone in danger so I simply waved the chook off.”
Different efforts to retrieve him have been known as off due to heavy anti-aircraft fireplace. Fujii grew to become the lone American on the battlefield and handled accidents of South Vietnamese allies all through the night time and subsequent day.
Amid an enemy assault on the night time of Feb. 19, Fujii discovered a radio transmitter and known as in American gunships to assist repel the assault. For 17 straight hours, he uncovered himself to enemy fireplace to get higher views of enemy troop positions and name in airstrikes.
“At occasions, the combating grew to become so vicious that Spc. 5 Fujii was pressured to interrupt radio transmissions in an effort to place suppressive rifle fireplace on the enemy whereas in shut quarters,” the quotation learn at Tuesday’s ceremony mentioned.
A U.S. helicopter was lastly in a position to attain him on Feb. 20, however was hit and compelled to crash-land at a South Vietnamese base 4 kilometers from his authentic location. A “completely exhausted” Fujii was on the allied camp for an additional two days earlier than he was lastly evacuated to medical care, in line with his quotation.
“Fujii downplayed his personal contributions and honored the talents of the allied Vietnamese troops he fought with, merely saying, ‘I like my job. I like to assist different individuals who need assistance on the market,'” Biden mentioned. “It is superb. As we speak, Spc. 5 Fujii, we bear in mind and we have a good time simply how many individuals you helped.”
— Rebecca Kheel will be reached at Rebecca.Kheel@Army.com. Comply with her on Twitter @reporterkheel
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