{"id":84840,"date":"2019-02-07T08:14:31","date_gmt":"2019-02-07T12:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=84840"},"modified":"2022-01-13T20:32:29","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T01:32:29","slug":"vietnam-veteran-who-ordered-his-marines-to-fix-bayonets-receives-silver-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=84840","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam Veteran Who Ordered His Marines to Fix Bayonets Receives Silver Star\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Retired Maj. Edward Wright, who served with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, was presented with the Silver Star 51 years after his heroic actions during the Vietnam War. The Lima Company platoon leader is credited with leading a 30-man reaction force against North Vietnamese fighters on Aug. 21, 1967, to save an\u00a0Army<\/a>\u00a0convoy and other Marines after his own company commander’s team was ambushed.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

“Lieutenant Wright expeditiously organized his platoon and led them on a rapid two-mile combat march to the ambush site,” the Silver Star citation states. “Recognizing contact with the enemy was imminent, he tactically\u00a0deployed<\/a>\u00a0his force into concealed positions moments before the enemy unleashed a ferocious attack with automatic weapons, rockets and grenades.”<\/p>\n

Despite the enemy fire, Wright and his men forged ahead. He tenaciously assaulted, the citation states, clearing enemy positions as he advanced toward hand-to-hand combat.<\/p>\n

“As the battle came to close combat, [Wright] rallied his men and ordered them to fix bayonets and continued his aggressive assault.”<\/p>\n

Wright, who received the medal during a ceremony in Portland, Oregon, is one of several Vietnam-era combat heroes recognized in recent years. Retired Marine\u00a0Sgt. Maj. John Canley<\/a>\u00a0was awarded the\u00a0Medal of Honor<\/a>\u00a0in October for his actions during the 1968 Battle of Hue City. A year ago, former Army\u00a0Capt. Gary “Mike” Rose<\/a>\u00a0also received the nation’s highest valor award for his actions in Laos during the Vietnam War.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of all the orders I would least like to be given or have to give to others, “Fix Bayonets” has got to be near the top of the list.<\/p>\n

Suddenly he awoke and was running \u2013 raw
\nIn raw-seamed hot khaki, his sweat heavy,
\nStumbling across a field of clods towards a green hedge
\nThat dazzled with rifle fire, hearing
\nBullets smacking the belly out of the air \u2013
\nHe lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm;
\nThe patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye
\nSweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest, \u2013
\nIn bewilderment then he almost stopped \u2013
\nIn what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations
\nWas he the hand pointing that second? He was running
\nLike a man who has jumped up in the dark and runs
\nListening between his footfalls for the reason
\nOf his still running, and his foot hung like
\nStatuary in mid-stride. Then the shot-slashed furrows
\nThrew up a yellow hare that rolled like a flame
\nAnd crawled in a threshing circle, its mouth wide
\nOpen silent, its eyes standing out.
\nHe plunged past with his bayonet toward the green hedge,
\nKing, honour, human dignity, etcetera
\nDropped like luxuries in a yelling alarm
\nTo get out of that blue crackling air
\nHis terror\u2019s touchy dynamite.<\/p>\n

Bayonet Charge
\nby Ted Hughes<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source: Vietnam Veteran Who Ordered His Marines to Fix Bayonets Receives Silver Star | Military.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Retired Maj. Edward Wright, who served with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, was presented with the … Vietnam Veteran Who Ordered His Marines to Fix Bayonets Receives Silver Star\u00a0<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":667,"featured_media":84841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[389,226],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-valor","category-veterans-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84840","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\/667"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/84841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}