Medal of Honor winner’s heroism matched by humility
PRESIDENT Trump on Monday bestowed the nation’s highest military honor to a former Army medic with Oklahoma ties whose story we still wouldn’t know if he had his way.
But the valor displayed by retired Army Capt. Gary “Mike” Rose, and which earned him the Medal of Honor, merits attention and the respect of Americans everywhere.
Rose served in the Military Assistance Command Studies and Observation Group, or MAC SOG, during the Vietnam War. It was an elite division of the Special Forces that Rose never mentioned to anyone for more than 40 years. “When we left MAC SOG, the unit did not exist,” he told reporters last week. “If anyone asked me, I was going to be a mail clerk during the Vietnam War.”
Rose was much more than that, as he displayed in Laos during a four-day mission in 1970 called “Operation Tailwind.”
Rose, 69, of Huntsville, Alabama, had enlisted in April 1967, and a year later graduated as a Special Forces medic. He was assigned in 1970 to MAC SOG, whose purpose was to join with local fighters to attack North Vietnamese forces in Laos— which officially was off-limits for combat.
The unit, made up of Americans, Vietnamese and indigenous paramilitary Montagnard personnel, was sent deep into enemy territory on Sept. 11, 1970. They were met immediately by gunfire that wounded two Americans and two Montagnards. One of the wounded was trapped outside the company’s defensive perimeter. “Rose, engaging the enemy, rushed to get the wounded soldier,” the Army said. “Rose rendered expert medical treatment and stabilized the wounded soldier, and carried the man through the heavy gunfire back to the company defensive area.”
So it went, with gunfire heavy enough that Rose often had to crawl from position to position to treat the wounded. He assisted 60-70 men during the operation. At one point, he suffered a serious foot wound that left him using a crutch to get around. After a helicopter crashed while trying to evacuate troops, Rose re-entered the destroyed aircraft to pull a soldier to safety.
His heroism resulted in Rose being awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, but his commander and others worked for years to get that upgraded. “I can’t think of an individual who deserves this more,” said retired Lt. Col. Eugene McCarley, who headed the unit. “Because of my association with him, I feel like I’m a better man.”
After returning stateside, Rose, who for a time was stationed at Fort Sill, earned his bachelor’s degree from Cameron University in December 1977, and a master’s degree in communication from the University of Oklahoma in 1989. He retired from the Army in 1987.
We’re glad to claim him as one of our own, and to salute him for earning the greatest honor this country bestows on its military heroes.