NOTABLE ARKANSANS

He wasn’t supposed to be there. His company, returning to base after a month-long mission of jungle fighting — ready for some well-deserved rest — was rerouted to give support to a cavalry division, near the Vietnamese city of Tam Ky. As this was his second tour, he had already seen a great deal of action: during his first tour — his first helicopter ride, on his first mission — his helicopter crashed into another, killing everyone except himself and one other soldier.

Immediately upon arrival, they came under heavy fire, but he was able to destroy the enemy positions with two grenades. His platoon leader was severely wounded, so, with the rank of staff sergeant, he assumed command, leading the platoon in wiping out other enemy emplacements. When the leader of another platoon was injured, he took command of that platoon as well. He climbed aboard a nearby tank and — in full view and at great personal risk — directed fire toward enemy positions.

“I got my boot heel shot off, I got holes in my canteens, I got my rifle grip shot up,” he later recalled. “I got shrapnel holes in my camouflage covers, and bullets in my pot.” He personally killed four enemy soldiers and destroyed an anti-tank weapon. For his actions, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and America’s highest military decoration: The Medal of Honor.

He was born in 1945 in Caraway, one of nine children of sharecroppers, on a cotton farm. The family soon moved to Arizona, where his grandparents lived. As a boy, he picked cotton and drove tractors. When his father contracted polio, he dropped out of high school, but later received a GED.

In 1963, when he was 17, he forged his mother’s signature to get into the Arizona National Guard. A year later, he joined the U.S. Army, a year before ground troops were first deployed to Vietnam. During his first tour, he was wounded three times. He requested a third tour, but was denied, as Medal of Honor recipients are not usually reposted to war zones.

After a 21-year career, he retired from the Army and returned to Arizona. In 1993, he became the director of the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs, and helped establish the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery and the Arkansas Veterans Coalition. In 2006, the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History honored him with the Arsenal Award, in recognition of his service to the nation and the state of Arkansas.