A grenade exploded in his foxhole, shattering Skaggs' lower leg. Bleeding, alone, and in agony, he fashioned a tourniquet, braced himself in the crater, and kept firing.
Despite being wounded during the initial grenade throw, he surged forward—alone—into the open, firing as he went. The enemy hit him again and again, riddling his body. But he kept going.
Dean would spend more than three years in North Korean captivity. Isolated, interrogated, and tortured, he never compromised classified information or the dignity of his uniform.
His vehicle was ambushed at an enemy roadblock, instantly shredding it with gunfire and killing or wounding all aboard—except him. Taking cover in a ditch, Libby returned fire with deadly resolve.
He gunned down two enemy soldiers but was wounded in the process. Separated from his officer, out of ammunition, and surrounded, he fixed his bayonet and charged into close combat.
Between July 15th and 19th, his platoon was tasked with a dangerous mission—assaulting and securing a heavily fortified North Vietnamese position tucked deep into the jungled ridges of the A Shau Valley.
He pinpointed five enemy positions, silenced one, and returned to lead his men in a fierce assault that drove the Japanese from the battlefield—capturing or destroying ten machine guns and four mortars.
