This Day in History: Charles "Snake" Hosking's Medal of Honor

On this day in 1924, a hero is born. Charles “Snake” Hosking, Jr. would go on to become a Green Beret, earning the Medal of Honor while serving in Vietnam.

He didn’t start out as a Green Beret. Instead, he began as a high school dropout. As a 16-year-old, he was determined to serve in World War II, but his parents weren’t ready for him to leave school. He left anyway, hitchhiking to Canada and joining the Canadian Army.

Naturally, his age was soon discovered, and he was forced to return to the States.  Maybe you won’t be surprised to hear that he dropped out of high school again? This time, he joined the Coast Guard, but that wouldn’t last long, either. It was discovered that he had a heart issue, so he soon found himself kicked out there, too.

Hosking must have been one determined young man?! He still wanted to serve, but he knew that he couldn’t pass an Army physical. He somehow finagled a situation where he could bypass the physical with the help of a local congressman.

It was the beginning of a long career in the Army, including service with the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II. A bazooka training accident left him with two broken legs and other injuries, so he never saw combat in Korea, but he later recovered and did three tours of duty in Vietnam.

By then, he was a Green Beret.  He was called “Snake” because of “his ability to slide in and out of places,” according to one local New Jersey paper.

Then-Staff Sergeant Hosking’s heroism came on March 21, 1967, as he served in the Don Luan District, just a few miles from Saigon. His company had apprehended and detained a local who was riding by on a bike equipped with mortars. They determined that he was a sniper for the Viet Cong, and they prepared to move him to a nearby Special Forces camp.

Just then, the sniper snatched a grenade out of Hosking’s belt, arming it. The sniper took off running toward the company command group nearby.

Hosking leapt into action, tackling the sniper.

“[H]e grasped the Viet Cong in a ‘Bear Hug,’” his Medal citation explains, “forcing the grenade against the enemy soldier’s chest. He then wrestled the Viet Cong to the ground and covered the enemy’s body with his body until the grenade detonated.”

Both Hosking and the enemy sniper were killed, instantly.

The four men in the company command group escaped serious injury or death thanks to Hosking’s quick and decisive action.

Hosking was posthumously promoted to Master Sergeant, and he would be awarded the Medal of Honor in May 1969. Richard Nixon presented the Medal, hanging it around the neck of Hosking’s 8-year-old son.

His hometown of Ramsey, New Jersey, is proud. They’ve dedicated a memorial to him and named a street in his honor.

“[T]his was a true soldier, this is a guy you read about,” one local concluded, “he wasn’t a weekend warrior.”

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Primary Sources & Further Reading:

• Charles “Snake” Hosking Jr. (Carry the Load website)

• David Gary, Local Soldier Remembered for Heroism (Ridgewood News; Aug. 26, 2000) (p. A2)

• Distinguished Member of the Special Forces Regiment: Master Sergeant Charles E. Hosking Jr. (United States Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School)

• Gail Hosking Gilberg, Snake's Daughter The Roads in and out of War (1998)

• Jeffrey Page, The Name-Dropper: Hoskins Way in Ramsey (Suburban News North; Dec. 22, 2016) (p. 2)

• Katie Lange, Medal of Honor Monday: Army MSgt. Charles Hosking Jr.(Dept. of Defense; Mar. 21, 2022)

• Marsha A. Stoltz, Book by New Jersey Marine Corps veteran brings life to the names on war memorials (NorthJersey.com; Nov. 11, 2020)

• Medal of Honor citation (Charles E. Hosking, Jr.; Vietnam)