Subject: Silver Taps, one year later
Dec. 30-31, 1968:
U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Beret) Sergeant First Class Robert L. Howard
is
operating deep in the South Vietnamese backcountry (some sources say
Cambodia)
when suddenly his 40-man hatchet platoon is attacked by a force of some 250
North Vietnamese soldiers.
As the attack unfolds, Howard and his lieutenant are struck by an exploding
claymore. Howard is knocked unconscious. He comes to, but with blood in his
eyes, he initially believes he has been blinded. Momentarily he can see, but
he
quickly realizes his body is riddled with shrapnel, his weapon is destroyed,
and the enemy is all around him.
Howard manages to toss a grenade at an enemy soldier who is burning the
bodies
of Howard’s dead comrades with a flamethrower. Howard then crawls
under
heavy fire to his wounded lieutenant, and drags the officer toward a
position
of relative safety. Howard survives a second blast when his
lieutenant’s
ammunition pouch is struck and detonates. Despite his shredded hands, Howard
manages to shoot several enemy soldiers with a pistol. He is then shot in
the
foot and no longer able to walk. Nevertheless, he organizes what’s
left
of the platoon into a defensive position, then crawls from one man to the
next,
tending to the wounded and dying, shouting encouragement to the living and
fighting, and directing airstrikes on the attacking enemy. Though
surrounded,
Howard successfully repels attack-after-attack, saves his platoon, and
ultimately receives the Medal of Honor.
Retired as a colonel in 1992, Howard is the only soldier to be nominated
three
times for the Medal of Honor for three separate actions over a period of
just
over a year.
[AUTHOR’S NOTE: The great Col. Bob Howard passed away, Wednesday, Dec.
23, 2009.
In addition to visiting American troops in