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An Oklahoman who fought off heavy enemy hearth to save lots of fellow Military troopers after an ambush in 1968 in Vietnam will obtain the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest navy award, the White Home introduced on Monday.
Dwight W. Birdwell, who lives in Norman and practices legislation in Oklahoma Metropolis, was among the many 4 recipients introduced. All had been within the Military and earned the award for gallantry in Vietnam. President Joe Biden will current the awards on July 5.
U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, authored laws two years in the past that allowed the troopers to obtain the award exterior of the five-year interval from the date of the acts of valor.
Birdwell, a local of Adair County, was a specialist 5 serving with Troop C, third Squadron, 4th Cavalry, twenty fifth Infantry Division on Jan. 31, 1968, when enemy troops initiated an assault on the Tan Son Nhut Airbase close to Saigon, in keeping with the White Home.
Birdwell recalled later that he and members of his cavalry unit had been the primary to answer the assault and that he thought they might be preventing much less skilled troopers. The unit’s tanks bumped into hearth from 700 enemy troops on one facet of the street and 300 on the opposite facet.
The Troop C commander, a number of autos forward, was critically wounded, and his total crew was killed.
“Below heavy enemy small-arms hearth, Spc. 5 Birdwell moved the tank commander to security and fired the tank’s weapons on the enemy power,” in keeping with the White Home.
“Afterwards, he dismounted and continued preventing till receiving enemy hearth to his face and torso. He refused evacuation and led a small group of defenders to disrupt the enemy assault till reinforcements arrived. He then aided in evacuating the wounded till he was ordered to hunt consideration for his personal wounds.”
Birdwell was honorably discharged on Dec. 29, 1968. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Army Corridor of Fame on Oct. 21, 2017.
The opposite recipients introduced on Monday are: Workers Sgt. Edward N. Kaneshiro (posthumous); Spc. 5 Dennis M. Fujii, of Hawaii; and retired Maj. John J. Duffy, of California.
Final 12 months, Biden awarded the Medal of Honor to Military Grasp Sgt. Earl Plumlee, a local Oklahoman, for his gallantry in 2013 in Afghanistan.
The Medal of Honor is awarded to members of the armed forces who distinguish themselves conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity on the danger of their very own lives above and past the decision of obligation whereas: engaged in an motion in opposition to an enemy of the US; engaged in navy operations involving battle with an opposing international power; or serving with pleasant international forces engaged in an armed battle in opposition to an opposing armed power wherein the US is just not a belligerent celebration, the White Home stated.
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