top of page
  • Black Facebook Icon
  • Black Twitter Icon
  • Black Instagram Icon
Search

This Day in History: Oscar Austin's Medal of Honor

  • tara
  • 6 hours ago
  • 3 min read

On this day in 1969, a hero engages in an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor.  Oscar Austin’s little sister wasn’t surprised. He’d always been a hero to her.

 

Their mother had been single, supporting her family with her job at a laundry. Little sister Lolla remembered the many ways in which Oscar would pitch in to help with his five sisters during those days.

 

“He cared about people. He respected elders,” Lolla said. “I don’t want to make him a saint, but how he died, saving someone, that was him.”

 

Oscar’s classmate Stanley Muldrow had a similar recollection of his friend.

 

“His family was going through a divorce, mine had gone through a divorce,” he said. “So as kids we were just working a lot to help out the families. Oscar was throwing papers, working at a laundromat. I was working at a grocery store just trying to make a dollar.”

 

Nevertheless, after high school, they would choose to enlist rather than be drafted: Stanley in the Air Force, and Oscar in the Marines.

 

Oscar was a quiet fellow, and the Marine Corps was hard for him at first. Even so, he worked it out and was successfully serving as a Marine in Vietnam by the fall of 1968. He was an ammunition man with Company E, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines.

 

By February, he’d been promoted to Private first class. On the morning of February 23, Pfc. Oscar Austin was an assistant machine gunner, and he was stationed in an observation post with his friend, Lance Cpl. Douglas Payne.

 

Suddenly, the enemy launched a fierce attack: Large grenades, satchel charges, and small arms fire were being hurled at our boys.

 

Payne was wounded and unconscious, exposed to enemy fire several dozen yards from Austin’s position. Austin wasn’t going to leave his friend out in the open, of course. Instead, he raced through the open fire. Just as he reached Payne, an enemy grenade landed nearby.

 

“[R]eacting instantly,” his Medal citation describes, “[he] leaped between the injured marine and the lethal object, absorbing the effects of its detonation.” Shockingly, he survived. Ignoring his injuries, Austin was seemingly still trying to help Payne to safety when he turned and saw an enemy soldier aiming a weapon at Payne.  “With full knowledge of the probable consequences and thinking only to protect the marine,” his citation concludes, “Pfc. Austin resolutely threw himself between the casualty and the hostile soldier, and in so doing, was mortally wounded.”

 

Austin had effectively given his life—twice—to save his friend.  He would receive a Medal for his bravery on this day so long ago.

 

In the meantime, Payne survived the war. He struggled with the sacrifice that his friend made for him, but he finally resolved his inner struggle by deciding to pay it forward, serving as a civilian counselor for federal prison inmates.

 

Along with other family and friends, he was also at the commissioning of the destroyer USS Oscar Austin. 

 

“It’s really something,” Oscar’s sister Bobbie Garrett smiled, “because sometimes my little brother could be kind of destructive, so it’s appropriate to have a destroyer named after him.”

 

She was joking, of course. Mostly, those who loved Oscar were so proud of him.

 

“To give your life that’s all you can ultimately give anybody, and he gave his,” childhood friend Lottie Chatman observed. “So you know how tremendously brave he was to do what he did.”

 

Rest in peace, sir.


Enjoyed this post? More Medal of Honor

stories can be found on my website, HERE.

 

Primary Sources:

Comments

For media inquiries,

please contact Colonial Press

info at colonialpressonline dot com

Dallas, TX

Sign up for news and updates

from Tara Ross

Thanks for loving history with me!

© Copyright 2026 by Tara Ross.

bottom of page