FReeper Canteen ~ Hall of Heroes: SGT John F Baker, Jr ~ 16 October 2023

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[Kathy in Alaska]

 

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!

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---

~ Hall of Heroes ~

SGT John F. Baker, Jr.

(Info found here.)

           

John F. Baker, Jr. (October 30, 1945 - January 20, 2012) is a retired United States Army Sergeant who served in the Vietnam War and received the Medal of Honor.

John Baker was born in Davenport, Iowa and attended Moline High School from 1963 to 1966. At only 5 1 he was a gymnast before joining the army. His wife thought that gave him the strength and stamina to carry his buddies to safety. He became a tunnel rat in Vietnam, a soldier who entered Viet Cong tunnels searching out the enemy and destroying their caches of war material. Baker made the military his career, retiring in 1989. He then began working as a computer analyst at a Veterans Hospital in South Carolina. In addition to serving as the Vice-President of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, he serves as a member on the Nation s Monuments and Cemeteries Committee.

In 2008, the I-280 Bridge, connecting Davenport, Iowa with Rock Island, Illinois, was renamed the Sergeant John F. Baker, Jr., Bridge in honor of Baker.

Baker entered the U.S. Army in Moline, Illinois, serving as a private in A Company, 2nd Battalion of the 27th Infantry, 25th Division. In Vietnam, Baker took part in Operation Attleboro which began in September 1966. On November 5, 1966, Baker and his unit were called to assist another squad who were taking enemy fire. En route, A Company began to take fire and lost their lead soldier. Together with two other soldiers, Baker took over the head of the column and assisted in destroying two enemy positions. They were moving to take two others when a hand grenade knocked Baker off of his feet.

With the two other soldiers wounded, Baker "single handedly" destroyed another bunker before recovering his comrades. Despite taking further fire from enemy bunkers and snipers, Baker continually fell back to replenish ammunition and take back several wounded. For these actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor along with Captain Robert F. Foley, who also received the Medal of Honor for his actions in the battle. When awarded the citation, President Lyndon B Johnson stated:

The battlefield is the scarred and the lonely landscape of man s greatest failure. But is a place where heroes walk. Today we come here to the East Room of the White House to honor two soldiers, two soldiers who in the same battle and at the same time met the surpassing tests of their lives with acts of courage far beyond the call of duty. Captain Foley and Sergeant Baker fought in the same company. Now, together, they join the noblest company of them all. They fought because their Nation believed that only by honoring its commitments, and only by denying aggression its conquest, could the conditions of peace be created in Southeast Asia and the world."

Rank and organization: Sergeant (then Pfc.), U.S. Army, Company A, 2d Battalion, 27th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. Place and date: Republic of Vietnam, November 5, 1966. Entered service at: Moline, Ill. Born: October 30, 1945, Davenport, Iowa.

Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. En route to assist another unit that was engaged with the enemy, Company A came under intense enemy fire and the lead man was killed instantly. Sgt. Baker immediately moved to the head of the column and together with another soldier knocked out 2 enemy bunkers. When his comrade was mortally wounded, Sgt. Baker, spotting 4 Viet Cong snipers, killed all of them, evacuated the fallen soldier and returned to lead repeated assaults against the enemy positions, killing several more Viet Cong. Moving to attack 2 additional enemy bunkers, he and another soldier drew intense enemy fire and Sgt. Baker was blown from his feet by an enemy grenade. He quickly recovered and single-handedly destroyed 1 bunker before the other soldier was wounded. Seizing his fallen comrade's machine gun, Sgt. Baker charged through the deadly fusillade to silence the other bunker. He evacuated his comrade, replenished his ammunition and returned to the forefront to brave the enemy fire and continue the fight. When the forward element was ordered to withdraw, he carried 1 wounded man to the rear. As he returned to evacuate another soldier, he was taken under fire by snipers, but raced beyond the friendly troops to attack and kill the snipers. After evacuating the wounded man, he returned to cover the deployment of the unit. His ammunition now exhausted, he dragged 2 more of his fallen comrades to the rear. Sgt. Baker's selfless heroism, indomitable fighting spirit, and extraordinary gallantry were directly responsible for saving the lives of several of his comrades, and inflicting serious damage on the enemy. His acts were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

 

Please remember the Canteen is here to honor, support and entertain our troops and their families.  This is a politics-free zone!  Thanks for helping us in our mission! 

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Mayor, and thank you for today’s sustenance for body and soul.

Hope you’ve got your ducks all lined up for the new week.

I’m working on mine.

[Kathy in Alaska]

It was a male...he just stood there for a few and then walked away.

[radu]

That’s pretty nippy for down there. I imagine the kitties are huddled up tonight since they aren’t used to the chill.
It’s 50 here and supposed to drop to around 43 or so by morning. Tomorrow will be a repeat of today. brrrr I hope it isn’t as windy, at least. I do need to make a store run.

Watching the weather report tonight, it looks like it won’t warm up quite as much later this week as they initially predicted. The warmest will be maybe mid 70s. Then back to mid 60s next weekend.

It didn’t get as dark there as I thought it would during the eclipse. I thought the moon would cover a little bit more of the sun than it did. Still a cool sight to see. Glad it was right over your head and you didn’t have to drive far to see it with Mark.

[radu]

Ah, so you did see which one it was. Poor feller. Rang his bell. LOL

[luvie]

I don’t even want it to warm back up here. I’m sooooo tired of heat! Besides, I want a chance to use my wonderful self-heating throws. LOL! I sleep so good when they are part of the cover.

Yeah, the campus of the university is only about 1/2 mile from our house as the crow flies. It was a bit windy but it didn’t mess up any of the footage that he took. He also took a timelapse of the little crescents that were made by the shadows of the leaves on a tree. That was cool!

[radu]

A little warm-up wouldn't be too bad but upper 80s IS a bit much. Warm enough you don't need to turn the heat on but cool enough to be comfy. Low 70s fits that bill.

Low 70s is where we should be this time of year and I wish we could have a long stretch of that. 50s is December weather and we aren't in December yet.

I don't know how you can stand all that weight on you when you sleep - - comforter, those throws. I'd feel like I was suffocating. LOL

I didn't realize the campus was that close to your house. You really didn't have far to drive at all. Very convenient.

Aren't the shadow crescents cool? I learned about them by accident in '94 when we had a partial eclipse here. I walked out onto the front porch with a piece of paper and a piece of cardboard with a pinhole in it. The sun was shining through the leaves of a holly tree and the shadow was across the sidewalk. I wondered why it looked so weird and bent down to get a good look. It was full of little shadow crescents.

I took a sheet to my brother's house when we went up to watch the total eclipse in 2017. I knew they hadn't seen them before and wanted to add a little something extra to the "show". The eclipse was about to go into totality when I took this shot of the crescents through the pine tree shade.

[E.G.C.]

A very pleasant good Monday morning and ((HUGS)) to everyone at the Canteen and to all our military at home and abroad. Thanks for your service to our country.

Yesterday at Comanche Lake:

We also had KFC supper.

How's everyone doing this morning?

[gnarledmaw]

Im not that far away, you could send a bit up here.

Its been hitting 39 and the furnace is out.

I should just be glad it happened now before it gets cold.

[luvie]

Oh, that’s an awesome shot! I didn’t realize they did that, but Mark had two cameras set up to catch them. When the eclipse was at the peak, the little crescents turned into circles. So neat!

Those self-heating throws hardly weigh anything. But we keep it fairly cool in the house at night, and we’re both pretty cold-natured, so I just feel cuddled up with the covers and nice warm sweats. I sleep like a BABY when it’s fall and winter.

During summer, I never even had a top sheet. Just slept on the fitted bottom. Even thinking about how hot it was...even the walls of the house were warm [not much insulation in these older homes]....makes me start dreading it again. LOL!

[radu]

Howdy, E.G.C. ((HUGZ))

What a beautiful day you had yesterday. Love that blue sky with puffy white clouds. Looks like Gizmo enjoyed himself and made sure both of you worked up an appetite for that KFC supper. :-)

[luvie]

Howdy, EGC! Glad you and Gizmo had fun at the lake over the weekend. That KFC sounds soooo good. Gizmo looks like King Of The Hill in this picture. I like it! :)

[radu]

Yikes! 39 and the furnace is out? I hope that can be remedied REAL soon.

You northerners have thicker blood than I do! 39 is way too cold for my taste. With a furnace not working, I’d be bundled up in several layers of clothing and would still be cold. LOL!

[radu]

I didn’t realize they did that until that day in ‘94, even though I’d seen other eclipses over the years. We always watched in the back yard and the crescents don’t show up on the grass. We had our cardboard and pieces of paper but we were out away from and tree shade.

I wish I had the shot from ‘94 on my HD. Different types of trees give you different crescents. The shape of the leaves makes the difference. Pine needles give you a gazillion crescents and the holly leaves didn’t show as many.

My brother and sister-in-law gave me funny looks when I laid the sheet out. I didn’t say a word until it was laid out, then just said, “Looky!” They didn’t know about the crescents until they saw them that day.

The crescents turning into circles you got to see yesterday sound really cool. I would have enjoyed seeing those.

I keep the house fairly cool during winter to save money but I still sleep with just a fairly light bedspread and sheet. And have a fan blowing across the bed. LOL The heating pad for my back keeps me almost too warm, even though it’s set on low. Just a sheet suffices during summer - - and the fan turned on high. :-)

[luvie]

Mark's picture of the circles

He texted it to me after taking it. Aren't they cool?
Mind you, this was a young live oak tree with tiny leaves,
but lots of little openings between them

[radu]

That is really cool! And more in line with the shot I got through the holly tree. Not as many as through the pine needles and they’re more spread out.

I’m glad you got to see this. And you had Mark back in the area to watch it with. A fun day all ‘round.

[luvie]

It totally was a good day. His enthusiasm was catching. He’s like a kid when it comes to anything having to do with weather and climate, etc. He’s not a wild man like Reed, but the same excitement is there. Just more subtle.

Then after he was getting stuff re-packed into his rental to head back to Dallas to catch his flight home, we went for a burger at our favorite place and then home for an awesome nap. Fun times. :)

[radu]

I understand his enthusiasm. If I could afford to do what he, and others like Reed, Brett, Brandon, etc., do, I’d be just as enthusiastic. It’s very interesting when you get into it. I’m very jealous that you’ve gotten to hang out with Mark. LOL
And glad that you did and had such a good time.

[luvie]

I hope you get your chance some day. Maybe some sort of interesting weather event [nothing deadly!!] will come through your area, and you can see and meet the ones chasing after it. You’d REALLY enjoy the adrenaline rush!

Sort of like that ride you got this past weekend in that military vehicle!

And now...the excitement of the evening. It’s time to hit the pillows. I just looked at the clock. Sure glad I don’t have to get up for anything in the morning. See ya tomorrow night!

[radu]

Brett Adair and Brad Arnold have been fairly close by in the past but not right here. I seriously doubt I’ll ever get to meet them but it sure would be cool to have the opportunity. Top of my bucket list is going on a tornado chase with Brett. LOL

Yes, riding in the APC is definitely an adrenaline rush! We rarely know when Devon will show up so yesterday was a very nice surprise.

You stayed up mighty late tonight after waking up so early. Sleep nice and late tomorrow to make up for it. :-)
Catch ya tomorrow.

[beachn4fun]

Good morning, Canteen.

Good morning to our

Military, our Allies, and their families.

Hat tip to
John F. Baker, Jr.
(October 30, 1945 - January 20, 2012)
Retired United States Army Sergeant

Thank you, Ma for preparing
the Canteen for today's activities.

Off to get ready for our morning walk.
But please stay right where you are.
Chat up the military or a family member.
No need to fret...you know I'll be back!

Come in and sit for a while.
There's always plenty of coffee, tea,
pancakes, conversation, silliness,
and plain old BS

REMEMBER THEM ~ DEFENDERS OF FREEDOM

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT

Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allied military and the family members of the above. Honoring those who have served before.