Band of Heroes

In 104 years, only 3,188 U.S. fighting men have qualified to wear the star-spangled blue silk neckband and bronze star of the nation's highest award for valor. And with each war the Med al of Honor becomes harder to win.

When President Johnson last week clasped the ribbon around the neck of Marine Gunnery Sergeant Jimmie E. Howard, 38, it was only the 17th Medal of Honor awarded for the Viet Nam conflict.

Howard and his platoon of 17 Marine scouts were trapped on the grassy slopes of Hill 488, deep inside Viet Cong territory south of Danang soon after midnight on June 15, 1966. For six hours, an entire North Vietnamese battalion of more than 350 men tried to dislodge them with mortars, machine guns and grenades. Every American was wounded, some in hand-to-hand combat in which Marines clubbed attackers with rifle butts or hacked them with knives. At least 48 of the Communists were killed by the platoon; many others were lost when Howard summoned up artillery and air strikes that rained steel and napalm on the hill. When grenade fragments paralyzed both legs, Howard organized a tight defense and handed his ammunition to Marines still able to fight, before taking charge of the platoon's radio. When reinforcements tried to land by helicopter at daybreak, Howard waved them out of danger until he was satisfied that further bombing had knocked the fight out of the North Vietnamese who had outnumbered his men by 20 to one. Four of Howard's scouts won the Navy Cross, the second highest award, and 13 the Silver Star. Six other medal winners were posthumous.

Ten of the eleven survivors from Hill 488 mingled with the brass that glittered in the East Room of the White

House to hear the President extol their leader's "towering valor." But the grizzled, close-cropped veteran of 17 years in the corps could only point to his platoon and mumble: "That's the guys who did it right there."

It was a young widow and mother of two small children, Mrs. Gertraud H. Stewart, who three days later in the Pentagon accepted from Secretary of the Army Stanley R. Resor the 18th Medal of Honor won in Viet Nam.

The full saga of Army Staff Sergeant Jimmy G. Stewart's heroism near An Khe in May last year lies buried with him. But eight Viet Cong corpses sprawled around his body bore testimony to the ferocity of the 23-year-old air cavalryman's last fight to shield five wounded comrades. As the only member of his six-man squad left unhurt by the Viet Cong's first surprise onslaught, Stewart alone battled a platoon for four hours, beating back three savage assaults. When his M-16 rifle was empty, Stewart crawled through a barrage of bullets to retrieve ammunition that his helpless buddies could not fire; when grenades landed spluttering in their midst, he hurled them back; when American reinforcements counterattacked, Stewart rushed to press home his one-man war. He died in a Viet Cong spider hole, while the men he gave his life to protect were carried to safety.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.