This Day in History: Jim McCloughan's bravery in Vietnam

On this day in 1969, a hero engages in an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. James “Jim” McCloughan didn’t expect to be a war hero. The former college athlete thought he’d be a teacher and a coach.

Instead, he was drafted into the Army. His knowledge of sports medicine meant that he would serve as a combat medic. “You’re not going to get this guy prepared for what he’s going to see in Vietnam as combat medic,” he said of the Army decision, “but he’s got a head start.”

Then-Pfc. McCloughan’s Medal action came May 13-15, 1969, not long after he arrived in Vietnam. His company was to be combat assaulted into an area near Tam Kỳ and Nui Yon Hill.

The mission was potentially just a bad idea. They didn’t have enough intel on the enemy, and it soon showed.

The helicopters came under attack almost immediately, downing two. One had crashed about 100 meters from the company’s defense perimeter, leaving one man too badly injured to help himself.

McCloughan dashed across an open field, determined to retrieve that soldier. “I weaved and sprinted through the fire and slid in next to him like I was sliding into second base,” he chuckled.

It was just the beginning of a long, 48-hour conflict. It’s estimated that our company of 89 men came under attack by approximately 2,700 enemy that day.

Over and over again, McCloughan would leave a trench or place of relative safety, running to rescue an injured soldier. At one point, a blast from a rocket-propelled grenade landed near him and two soldiers he was trying to help. Now McCloughan, too, was injured.

“Yet that terrible wound didn’t stop Jim from pulling those two men to safety,” the President would later say at McCloughan’s Medal ceremony, “nor did it stop him from answering the plea of another wounded comrade and carrying him to safety . . . . And so it went, shot after shot, blast upon blast.”

McCloughan had an opportunity to evacuate at the end of the day, but he refused to go. “I wasn’t going to leave my men,” he told a reporter years later. “Nope. I thought that would be my last day on Earth, though.”

The next day was just as bad as the first, but one moment stands out to him: He’d made a dash for a soldier with a very bad abdominal wound. He couldn’t throw that man over his shoulder. Would they both end up killed?

“Then a thought came over me,” he later described. “It had been since I was a small boy that I told my father I loved him. We just didn’t do that in the ’50s and ’60s. So I had a conversation with the Lord, and I said, ‘Lord, if you get me out of this hell on earth so I can tell my father that I love him just one more time, I’ll be the best dad, I’ll be the best teacher and I’ll be the best coach that I can be.’”

His prayer was answered in the affirmative, even though he continued to risk his life throughout that day and into the night: He held a blinking light in the middle of an open field, marking the path for a nighttime drop of supplies. He fought the enemy, even eliminating one enemy position. He kept two critically ill soldiers alive.

Would you believe our men emerged triumphant?

“We walked out of there on the morning of May 15 as blood brothers,” McCloughan smiled. “The love we had for each other had conquered the enemy. They moved out, and we were still standing.”

McCloughan would receive a Medal of Honor, and he would return to his dream job. But his best reward surely came when he landed at Chicago O’Hare after Vietnam.

He gave his dad a giant hug, saying “I love you!” His father heartily returned both, McCloughan explained, “just like we had been doing that for 24 years.”

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Primary Sources

• Allen Cone, Trump gives his first Medal of Honor to Vietnam vet (UPI; July 31, 2017)

• David Vergun, Former Army Medic Receives Medal of Honor for Vietnam War Heroism (U.S. Central Command; Aug. 1, 2017)

• David Vergun, Michigan high school teacher, coach to receive Medal of Honor (Army News Service; June 13, 2017)

• He survived ‘hell on earth’ in Vietnam. Today, this Medal of Honor recipient develops leaders (Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency; May 9, 2023)

• Medal of Honor citation (James C. McCloughan; Vietnam)

• Medal of Honor Story: James C. McCloughan (American Legion) (video interview)

• Remarks by President Trump at Presentation of Medal of Honor to Specialist Five James C. McCloughan, U.S. Army (July 31, 2017) (reprinted HERE)

• Remarks by Secretary of Defense Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis at a Medal of Honor Hall of Heroes Ceremony For Specialist Five James C. McCloughan (Aug. 1, 2017) (reprinted HERE)

• Specialist Five James McCloughan (U.S. Army website)