Medal of Honor history: Herda and Shields

42 years ago in Dak To, Vietnam Specialist Fourth Class Frank A. Herda’s heroic actions earned the Medal of Honor:

… He fired one last round from his grenade launcher, hitting one of the enemy soldiers in the head, and then, with no concern for his safety, Specialist Fourth Class Herda immediately covered the blast of the grenade with his body. The explosion wounded him grievously, but his selfless action prevented his two comrades from being seriously injured or killed and enabled the remaining defender to kill the other sappers. …

Read the rest of Herda’s citation here

And on 10 June 1965, in a special operations compound near Dong Xoai, Marvin G. Shields became the only Navy Seabee to earn the Medal of Honor. Shields had already been fighting for numerous hours, and had saved a critically wounded man by dragging him to safety.

… When the commander asked for a volunteer to accompany him in an attempt to knock out an enemy machinegun emplacement which was endangering the lives of all personnel in the compound because of the accuracy of its fire, Shields unhesitatingly volunteered for this extremely hazardous mission. Proceeding toward their objective with a 3.5-inch rocket launcher, they succeeded in destroying the enemy machinegun emplacement, thus undoubtedly saving the lives of many of their fellow servicemen in the compound. …

Shields was mortally wounded as he returned from the assault. Read the rest of Shields’ citation here