Posted on 04/22/2018 5:10:23 PM PDT by Kathy in Alaska
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Kern W. Dunagan (February 20, 1934 - December 27, 1991) was a United States Army officer and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in the Vietnam War. Dunagan joined the Army from Los Angeles, California, and by May 13, 1969 was serving as a captain in Company A, 1st Battalion, 46th Infantry Regiment, Americal Division. During a firefight on that day, in Quang Tin Province, Republic of Vietnam, Dunagan showed conspicuous leadership as he organized his men and rescued wounded soldiers despite his own wounds. He was subsequently promoted to major and awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. Dunagan reached the rank of colonel before leaving the Army. He died at age 57 and was buried in San Francisco National Cemetery, San Francisco, California. |
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Major Dunagan's official Medal of Honor citation reads: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Maj. (then Capt.) Dunagan distinguished himself during the period May 13 and 14, 1969, while serving as commanding officer, Company A. On May 13, 1969, Maj. Dunagan was leading an attack to relieve pressure on the battalion's forward support base when his company came under intense fire from a well-entrenched enemy battalion. Despite continuous hostile fire from a numerically superior force, Maj. Dunagan repeatedly and fearlessly exposed himself in order to locate enemy positions, direct friendly supporting artillery, and position the men of his company. In the early evening, while directing an element of his unit into perimeter guard, he was seriously wounded during an enemy mortar attack, but he refused to leave the battlefield and continued to supervise the evacuation of dead and wounded and to lead his command in the difficult task of disengaging from an aggressive enemy. In spite of painful wounds and extreme fatigue, Maj. Dunagan risked heavy fire on 2 occasions to rescue critically wounded men. He was again seriously wounded. Undaunted, he continued to display outstanding courage, professional competence, and leadership and successfully extricated his command from its untenable position on the evening of May 14. Having maneuvered his command into contact with an adjacent friendly unit, he learned that a 6-man party from his company was under fire and had not reached the new perimeter. Maj. Dunagan unhesitatingly went back and searched for his men. Finding 1 soldier critically wounded, Maj. Dunagan, ignoring his wounds, lifted the man to his shoulders and carried him to the comparative safety of the friendly perimeter. Before permitting himself to be evacuated, he insured all of his wounded received emergency treatment and were removed from the area. Throughout the engagement, Maj. Dunagan's actions gave great inspiration to his men and were directly responsible for saving the lives of many of his fellow soldiers. Maj. Dunagan's extraordinary heroism above and beyond the call of duty, are in the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the U.S. Army. |
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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! |
Greetings to all at the Canteen!
To all our military men and women, past and present,
Good evening, Luv...did you get a nice nap today?
I’ve been wandering the house all day picking things up, putting stuff away, packing a couple boxes to send to my sister.
Howdy, MS.B.
You’re here early this evening!
Howdy, Kathy.
Good to hear Peg got home safe and sound - - and on time to boot! Nice that she was able to get away for a little while to visit and help out with your mom’s stuff. It sounded like y’all had a good time while she was there.
Howdy, PRO.
Have a good day?
Anxiously awaiting Wed. and shooting time? :-)
Howdy, LUV.
Have a good day? No pew bonking, I assume. :-)
Howdy, ML.
You FINALLY got Blue home? WOOHOO!
I am so happy about it! :-)
Good job, Tigermaus.
Does he bring them to you?
I did nix, nothing, nada today, just relaxed.
Tomorrow is the semi-big shopping day, so there's that.
Son has a full week of work coming up so no gun range but we have all Spring/Summer for that so no biggie.
Bummer your museum folks didn't show up yesterday. How far of a drive was it?
I’m sure you are!
Is the weather going to be nice enough to get out and ride?
*HUG*
Howdy there, ‘Du!
Yes, I am early!
Wonder if I made the top 3?
LOL
LOL! Sounds like my day. It’s been raining all day so I had no desire to go anywhere.
I’ll bet Zach is looking forward to working and having no school work to deal with for a while. But it’s a shame it puts the shooting range on hold for a bit.
Yeah, I was a bit upset about no one opening the museum yesterday and no one letting me know about it. It’s about 25 miles from here, so a 50 mile round trip. The worst part was getting up at 8 am for nothing. That hurt! LOL
It was 62 today, a little chilly, but nice “Leather Weather”.
Indeed you did make the Top 3 tonight.
Did you give Tigermaus lots of hugs and “attaboys” after he brought you the mousie last night?
62 is a lot better than you’ve had in quite a while. A little cool yet but yep, that’s what leathers are for. :-)
I did get a nap this afternoon. It was great!
I need to do some picking up, too. Doing a little at a time doesn’t make it seem so overwhelming, huh.
I did spend this last week going through my closets, and there is still some to get done! Who knew I saved so much that I don’t wear any more. LOL!
Good evening, mountainlion. A town parade? Have fun with the genealogy. My folks were really into that.
Hi, there, radu! How ya doing?
Had a very good day, and no pew bonking! I didn’t even get sleepy for a change. LOL!
How was your day? Hope it didn’t get as cold as was predicted! It was kind of chilly here this morning, but it warmed right up.
It was such a nice ride home. I took all back roads, 26 miles of them.
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