{"id":80696,"date":"2018-07-20T12:28:08","date_gmt":"2018-07-20T16:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=80696"},"modified":"2018-07-20T12:28:08","modified_gmt":"2018-07-20T16:28:08","slug":"sgt-maj-john-canley-to-receive-medal-of-honor-for-hue-heroics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=80696","title":{"rendered":"Sgt. Maj. John Canley to receive Medal of Honor for Hue heroics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><a href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?attachment_id=80697\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-80697\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sgt.-Maj.-John-Canley-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-80697\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sgt.-Maj.-John-Canley-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sgt.-Maj.-John-Canley-225x333.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sgt.-Maj.-John-Canley.jpg 229w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Retired Marine Sgt. Maj. John Canley was told by the President that his Navy Cross is being upgraded to the Medal of Honor as soon as the White House can decide when the ceremony will occur.<\/p>\n<p>It happened 31 January to 6 February 1968 in the ancient Vietnamese City of Hue, when he was Gunnery Sergeant Canley. His <a href=\"https:\/\/valor.militarytimes.com\/hero\/4479\">Navy Cross citation<\/a>;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Gunnery Sergeant John L. Canley (MCSN: 1455946), United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism while serving as Company Gunnery Sergeant of Company A, First Battalion, First Marines, FIRST Marine Division (Reinforced), Fleet Marine Force, during operations against the enemy in the Republic of Vietnam from 31 January to 6 February 1968. <\/p>\n<p>On 31 January, when his company came under a heavy volume of enemy fire near the city of Hue, Gunnery Sergeant Canley rushed across the fire-swept terrain and carried several wounded Marines to safety. Later, with the company commander seriously wounded, Gunnery Sergeant Canley assumed command and immediately reorganized his scattered Marines, moving from one group to another to advise and encourage his men. <\/p>\n<p>Although sustaining shrapnel wounds during this period, he nonetheless established a base of fire which subsequently allowed the company to break through the enemy strongpoint. Retaining command of the company for the following three days, Gunnery Sergeant Canley on 4 February led his men into an enemy-occupied building in Hue. Despite fierce enemy resistance, he succeeded in gaining a position immediately above the enemy strongpoint and dropped a large satchel charge into the position, personally accounting for numerous enemy killed, and forcing the others to vacate the building. On 6 February, when his unit sustained numerous casualties while attempting to capture a government building, Gunnery Sergeant Canley lent words of encouragement to his men and exhorted them to greater efforts as they drove the enemy from its fortified emplacement. Although wounded once again during this action, on two occasions he leaped a wall in full view of the enemy, picked up casualties, and carried them to covered positions. <\/p>\n<p>By his dynamic leadership, courage, and selfless dedication, Gunnery Sergeant Canley contributed greatly to the accomplishment of his company&#8217;s mission and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stripes.com\/news\/us\/marine-to-receive-medal-of-honor-50-years-after-battle-of-hue-heroics-1.538583\">Stars &#038; Stripes<\/a>;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p> John Ligato, one of the Marines who fought alongside Canley in Vietnam, called him \u201ctotally fearless.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou followed him because he was a true leader \u2014 something you need in life-and-death situations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Canley\u2019s road to the Medal of Honor was a long one, requiring the intervention of several dedicated Marines and Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif.<\/p>\n<p>Ligato and his fellow 1st Battalion Marines spent nearly 15 years pushing for Canley to be recognized with the honor, only to see the effort met with more than 10 rejections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were times I gave up,\u201d Ligato told military.com. \u201cBut the irony is he&#8217;s one of the most deserved Medal of Honor recipients ever in the history of our country.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Retired Marine Sgt. Maj. John Canley was told by the President that his Navy Cross is &hellip; <a title=\"Sgt. Maj. John Canley to receive Medal of Honor for Hue heroics\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=80696\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sgt. Maj. John Canley to receive Medal of Honor for Hue heroics<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[184],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marine-corps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/80697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}