He ran into a kill zone already filled with wounded men and burning helicopters. Shot, stabbed, and blown apart—he refused to die until his team was out.
A grenade landed in the foxhole with nowhere to escape. He didn’t hesitate—he threw himself on it, then gave his last words to the Marine beside him.
He held a plasma bottle above the wounded while the enemy charged over the ridge. Blinded, bleeding, and alone, he fought them off to keep one man alive.
The bomber was burning, men were wounded, and three crewmen had already bailed out. On his first combat mission, he stayed behind to save the aircraft with his bare hands.
Wounded again and again, he refused evacuation and kept leading from the front. Across the killing fields of Dai Do, he drove the attack and held the line through the night.
The enemy broke through the line and darkness fell on a collapsing position. On the exposed flank, one sergeant held the ground through the night with grenades and rifle fire.
Pinned beneath machine-gun fire and grenades, his squad could not move. He rose alone, charged the pillbox twice, and destroyed it from the top.
