Retired Maj. Gen. John Admire (right) handshakes retired Maj. Edward F. Wright (left) at Portland, Ore., Feb. 1, 2019. Wright was awarded the medal for his actions on Aug. 21, 1967. (U.S. Marine Corps/Andy O. Martinez)
Editor's Note: This article by Gina Harkins originally appeared onMilitary.com, a leading source of news for the military and veteran community.
A retired officer whose leadership helped save soldiers and Marines pinned down by North Vietnamese fighters in 1967 received the third-highest award for valor on Friday for his heroism more than five decades ago.
French Consul General Emmanuel Lebrun-Damiens, left, honors Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler, and Alek Skarlatos during a French Naturalization Ceremony in Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019. (Associated Press/Randall Benton)
The three Americans who thwarted a terrorist attack on a Paris-bound train in 2015 were granted French citizenship on Thursday during a special naturalization ceremony in California, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Capt. Rosemary Mariner died Jan. 24, 2018. (Courtesy of Mariner family)
VIRGINIA BEACH -- Navy Cmdr. Stacy "Stigs" Uttecht was 15 years old in April 1993 when the military said it would allow women to fly combat aircraft.
Until this week, Uttecht, commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron 32, the Naval Air Station Oceana-based "Fighting Swordsmen," hadn't given much thought to yesterday's policies or women like Capt. Rosemary Mariner who fought for her ability to be there.
"I did not know who was behind it," Uttecht said. "I didn't know what women had been fighting for that."
Mariner, 65, died Jan. 24. A sort of unintentional pioneer whose many firsts helped lay a foundation for thousands of military women, she will be honored with the Navy's first all-female Missing Man flyover during a memorial service Saturday afternoon outside Maynardville, Tenn.
Marines drag casualty from street fighting for control of southern bridge, head across street to an ambulance in Hue, Vietnam, Feb. 4, 1968. (Associated Press)
At the end of January in 1968, the Viet Cong launched an offensive that turned the tide of the Vietnam War.
The Tet Offensive began on January 30 as the North Vietnamese occupied the city of Hue. U.S. Marines spent nearly a month fighting a brutal urban battle to retake the city — which was 80% destroyed by the battle's end, according to H.D.S. Greenway, a photographer embedded with the Marines during the war.
An estimated 1,800 Americans lost their lives during the battle.
But in the midst of the chaos, five men who faced harrowing circumstances risked their lives to save those of their comrades — and earned the nation's highest award for courage in combat, the Medal of Honor.
The Navy is set to commission the second ship in its Zumwalt class of destroyers as the USS Michael Monsoor in a ceremony at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, California, on Saturday.
