David H . McNerney David Herbert McNerney ( June 2 , 1931 – October 10 , 2010 ) was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the United States military ' s highest decoration — the Medal of Honor — for his actions in the Vietnam War . A native of Massachusetts who moved to Houston , Texas , as a child , McNerney served in the U . S . Navy during the Korean War before enlisting in the Army . He was recognized with the Medal of Honor when , as a first sergeant in Vietnam on March 22 , 1967 , his company came under attack by a numerically superior North Vietnamese force . They nearly split the company and killed or wounded all of the officers . Although wounded , McNerney took command of the company and organized the unit ' s defense , exposing himself to hostile fire to mark and clear a helicopter landing site . He refused to be evacuated for an entire day until a new commander came . After serving four tours of duty in Vietnam and 16 years of service , McNerney retired in 1969 and began a career as a customs inspector in Houston . Early life and family . McNerney was born in Lowell , Massachusetts , on June 2 , 1931 , into an Irish Catholic family with a history of military service . He was one of five children of Edward and Helen McNerney ; his siblings were Ruth , Edward , Richard , and Susan . His father was a decorated World War I veteran who received the Distinguished Service Cross , Silver Star , and two Purple Heart s . Two of his siblings served in World War II , Ruth as an Army nurse and Edward as a submariner on the , and a third , Richard , was an Air Force fighter pilot during the Vietnam War . McNerney ' s family moved to Houston , Texas , in the early 1940s and he graduated from St . Thomas High School in 1949 . He soon enlisted in the United States Navy and served two tours in the Korean War before he was discharged in 1952 . Briefly attended the University of Houston , McNerney disliked school and decided to join the Army after seeing a recruiting poster on campus . McNerney married Parmelia Marie " Charlotte " Moeckel in 1961 . The couple had no children and Parmelia died in 2003 . Military service . McNerney served two combat tours in Korea with the Navy before joining the Army . He enlisted in the Army in 1953 at Fort Bliss , Texas In 1962 , he volunteered for special warfare training and was among the first 500 U . S . military advisers sent to Vietnam . He was deployed to that country a second time in 1964 . In 1965 , McNerney was sent to Ft . Lewis , Washington , to train soldiers . McNerney had a hard reputation and was seen as a tough , no - nonsense man . He was selected to lead Company A , 1st Battalion , 8th Infantry Regiment , 4th Infantry Division . After they completed training and were sent to Vietnam , McNerney was not scheduled to go with them . However , during their year of training together , McNerney and the company developed an extremely strong bond , and McNerney volunteered to return to Vietnam with Company A . Battle of Polei Doc . In late 1966 , McNerney began his third tour of duty in Vietnam with Company A . While patrolling and marching across a narrow bridge , the battalion got into a fistfight with members of the 101st Airborne . McNerney was summoned by his company commander for an explanation during which he defended his men ' s actions . When the Company was given orders , they did not include the typical rest period at a rear base after every patrol . Instead , they were assigned to a forward operating base for an extended period of time , possibly in retribution for the altercation with the 101st Airborne . After a few months in country , Company A moved to the Central Highlands during the Tet New Year holidays near the Cambodia n border . On March 21 , 1967 , Company A and with Company B were dropped by helicopter into Polei Doc , later named “ The Valley of Tears ” , to search for a missing Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol ( LRRP ) . After bivouacking for the night , the two companies split up . Within 15 minutes of breaking camp on the morning of March 22 , Company A came under attack by a North Vietnamese force about three times their size . The NVA attempted to split the company in half . McNerney moved to the front to assess the situation . He was confronted by heavy machine gun fire and moved forward through it to kill the machine gunner . While returning to his lines he was blow off his feet by a grenade . When he returned to his unit he learned the company commander and all of the officers except 1st Lt . Rick Sauer had been killed or wounded . Within a few minutes , Sauer was incapacitated by gunshot and shrapnel wounds . Although wounded himself , McNerney assumed command of the unit and began organizing their defense to prevent the unit ' s lines from being split and overrun . He called in air strikes within of his own position . The triple - canopy jungle was so heavy that helicopters flying directly overhead could not locate and resupply the troops for some time . To help helicopter pilots find the unit ' s location , McNerney climbed a tree in full view of the enemy , exposing himself to fire , so he could place a large identification marker in the upper branches . To clear a landing zone for helicopters , McNerney braved heavy enemy machine gun fire to collect demolition equipment abandoned in rucksacks that had been dropped early in the battle , now outside his company ' s perimeter . Facing continued heavy small arms fire , he returned to the company ' s location and blew up trees to create a landing site so a helicopter could extract the wounded . Company A fought for almost the entire day . One soldier propped Lt . Sauer against a tree so he could continue shooting . Sauer later said , " “ By that point we were fighting for each other . We were fighting to live . Everything ( McNerney ) taught them , just clicked . They fought for each other . A lot of them did just unbelievable things . They were all heroes that day . No one thought of themselves . ” Due to the intense action many casualties were not evacuated until late in the afternoon . Company B , several kilometers from Company A , fought all day to reach the unit , reaching them late in the day . Despite his own injuries , McNerney refused to be evacuated and remained with A Company until a new commander arrived the next day . McNerney said later on that he had a calm feeling and knew that he wasn ' t going to die that day . During the Battle of Polei Doc , A Company ' s ( totaling 108 troops ) casualties include 22 men killed in action and 42 wounded , a 60 % casualty rate . After the battle , U . S . troops identified 139 NVA KIA around the A 1 / 8 perimeter , and another 400 NVA graves were located in the area a short time later . As a result of their actions during the battle that day , two men were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross , 7 the Silver Star , 25 the Bronze Star , and 65 a Purple Heart . McNerney was awarded the Medal of Honor . To evacuate wounded and bring in fresh supplies , helicopter pilot CWO Donald Rawlinson repeatedly returned to the company ' s position despite heavy enemy small - arms fire . Lt . Col . Rick Sauer later said , " He came and flew out the wounded . He risked his life multiple times . … The back of his Huey helicopter was just flowing in blood from continually taking out the wounded people . He did quite a job . ” Rawlinson was recognized with the Distinguished Flying Cross and was adopted as a member of A Company by its troops . The battalion was one of the most highly decorated battalions of the Vietnam War . Four members were recognized with Medals of Honor within a 60 day period . Later service . McNerney returned to the United States in August 1967 and worked as a training instructor at Fort Dix , New Jersey . During a ceremony at the White House on September 19 , 1968 , he was formally presented with the Medal of Honor by President Lyndon B . Johnson . He volunteered for a fourth tour in Vietnam with Company B , 2nd Battalion , 8th Cavalry Regiment , 1st Cavalry Division , before retiring as a first sergeant in December 1969 . Later years and legacy . After his military career , McNerney returned to the Houston area and settled in Crosby . He worked at the Port of Houston as an inspector with the United States Customs Service , a job he held from 1970 until his final retirement in 1995 . In his later years he attended numerous public speaking engagements and events in his honor and was involved in Crosby ' s American Legion post and Junior Reserve Officers ' Training Corps program . On August 24 , 2004 , McNerney donated his Medal of Honor to his alma mater , St . Thomas High School , at a ceremony inducting him into the school ' s Hall of Honor . A documentary " Honor in the Valley of Tears " described McNerney ' s service with Company A in Vietnam and his Medal of Honor action . It premiered at the May 2010 GI Film Festival . The film was co - written by the son of one of McNerney ' s soldiers . McNerney was diagnosed with untreatable lung cancer in the spring of 2010 . He entered hospice care at Houston ' s DeBakey VA Medical Center in early October and died only a week later , on October 10 , 2010 . He was buried at Houston National Cemetery on October 16 . In keeping with McNerney ' s last wishes , McNerney ' s Medal of Honor was returned to the 4th Infantry Division by the men of Company A on October 6 , 2011 , where it is currently on display in the Mountain Post Historical Center at Fort Carson , Colorado . The Metal of Honor Was donated to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum Where it will be displayed in the new William H . Gross Gallery ( opening late 2013 ) with First Sergeant David H . McNerney ’ s photo and a selection of his stamps from Korea and Vietnam . Medal of Honor citation . McNerney ' s Medal of Honor citation reads :