Medal of Honor: Charles Joseph Watters – Vietnam War – November 19, 1967
Unarmed, fearless, and driven only by faith and duty, Chaplain Charles J. Watters ran again and again into a storm of bullets near Dak To — carrying the wounded, comforting the dying, and refusing to stop until he gave his own life doing the same.
November 19, 2025
Name: Charles Joseph Watters
Rank: Chaplain (Major)
Organization: U.S. Army
Unit: Company A, 173rd Support Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade
Place and Date: Near Dak To Province, Republic of Vietnam – 19 November 1967
Entered Service At: Fort Dix, New Jersey
Born: January 17, 1927 – Jersey City, New Jersey
Departed: Killed in Action, November 19, 1967
Accredited to: New Jersey
Summary of Action
During a brutal assault near Dak To, Chaplain Charles J. Watters moved with an airborne company as it fought a heavily armed North Vietnamese battalion. As casualties mounted and the battle intensified, he rushed forward to the line of contact — unarmed, fully exposed, and utterly committed to reaching the wounded.
Watters moved among the fighting men and even ahead of the assaulting troops, giving aid, helping evacuate the injured, offering words of encouragement, and administering last rites to the dying. When he saw a paratrooper standing in shock directly in the path of enemy fire, he sprinted forward, lifted the man onto his shoulders, and carried him to safety.
As the troopers fought through the first line of enemy entrenchments, Watters again ran through intense fire to reach a fallen soldier at the front. When the company pulled back for a second assault, he noticed wounded men stranded between friendly and enemy lines. Ignoring attempts to restrain him, he left the perimeter three separate times — under small-arms, automatic-weapons, and mortar fire — to carry the wounded back to safety.
Once all the injured were accounted for, Watters moved through the defensive perimeter assisting medics, applying bandages, distributing food and water, and offering spiritual support to exhausted paratroopers. Even as rounds struck the earth around him, he moved from position to position tending to every man he could reach.
He was administering aid to the wounded when he was mortally struck by enemy fire. Chaplain Watters’ relentless courage, profound compassion, and total disregard for his own safety stand among the purest acts of heroism in the Vietnam War, embodying the highest ideals of the United States Army.
