COL, U.S. Army — Vietnam War
Robert L. Howard was born on July 11, 1939, in Opelika, Alabama, and enlisted in the Army in 1956. He became a Special Forces soldier, serving with the secretive Military Assistance Command Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) on missions across Southeast Asia.
On December 30, 1968, Sergeant First Class Howard was platoon sergeant of an American-Vietnamese platoon on a mission to rescue a missing Special Forces soldier when it was attacked just after leaving its landing zone by an estimated two-company enemy force. A grenade wounded Howard and destroyed his weapon. Unable to walk and unarmed, he crawled through heavy fire to reach his seriously wounded platoon leader, First Lieutenant James Jerson; while giving first aid, enemy fire detonated the magazines in the lieutenant’s ammunition pouches. Howard dragged the officer back toward the platoon, rallied the disorganized force into a defensive perimeter, and for the next three and a half hours crawled from position to position administering first aid and directing fire until rescue helicopters could land. He supervised the loading of the wounded and was the last man aboard. It was his third Medal of Honor nomination in 13 months — the first two, for covert actions in Cambodia, had been downgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star. President Richard Nixon presented the medal on March 2, 1971.
Wounded 14 times over 54 months of combat and awarded eight Purple Hearts, Howard is widely described as the most decorated American soldier of the Vietnam era. He received a direct commission in 1969, graduated from Ranger School and the National War College, and retired as a colonel in 1992 after 36 years, later working for the Department of Veterans Affairs. He died of pancreatic cancer on December 23, 2009, in Waco, Texas, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Sources: Wikipedia · Congressional Medal of Honor Society