The U.S. Marines are landing. It is not on a foreign shore, nor are there hostile forces to deal with.
The Marines are coming to friendly environs on the banks of the San Francisco River. They will be in Clifton to celebrate Robert E. O'Malley Day on Saturday, July 26.
 Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Robert E. O'Malley listens during the 2007 Robert E. O'Malley Day in Clifton. The event is again being held July 26 at Al Fernandez Park. Photo by Walter Mares |
The operation, which involved an amphibious landing, was the "U.S. Forces' first major victory over the Viet Cong," according to a declassified National Security Agency document.
O’Malley was the first living Marine in the Vietnam War to receive the medal. He also received three Purple Hearts.
His mission among friends in Clifton is as clear as it was against the enemy in Southeast Asia 43 years ago. This time, however, O'Malley's focus will be on Americans who have served or are now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The event begins around 9 a.m. at Al Fernandez Park with food vendors and a horseshoe tournament sponsored by the Clifton Volunteer Fire Department.
The ceremony in which O'Malley will honor today's veterans is tentatively set for 11 a.m. All times will be confirmed at a later date.
O'Malley Day is sponsored by the Mares Bluff Veterans Memorial Committee. The first O'Malley Day was held July 29, 2000. This will be O'Malley's third visit to Greenlee County in an official capacity. He was here for his day in July 2007.
The war hero first came to Greenlee County several years ago with close friend and former Marine Jimmy Martinez, a Morenci native, who was in the same unit as O'Malley. Martinez accompanied O'Malley on his first two trips to Clifton and will be with him again.
"This is an opportunity to meet a bona fide hero," Mares Bluff Committee President Steve Guzzo said. "He doesn't consider himself a hero, but when someone receives the Medal of Honor, what does that tell you about that person?"
Guzzo added, "What does it tell you about a person who doesn't think twice about traveling all the way from Texas to show his support for our men and women in the Middle East?
"Sarge O'Malley believes no veteran should go unrecognized, whether it's a Medal of Honor recipient or someone in the supply line who never saw combat," Guzzo said. "We should all learn a lesson from Vietnam about making sure all veterans are recognized for their contributions. That certainly applies to our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"It's really terrific that Sarge O'Malley is doing this and he wants the focus on our troops and not himself," Guzzo said.
He added, "By the way, those not familiar with Marines and their ways might hear 'Oorah!' quite a bit during the day. It's a common greeting among Marines. It's a Marine thing."
O'Malley was awarded the Medal of Honor Vietnam by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who cited O'Malley for "gallantry and intrepidity in action against the communist (Viet Cong) forces at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty."
O'Malley was a squad leader in Company I, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, 3rd Marine Division when his squad encountered the enemy near An Cu'ong 2, South Vietnam, on Aug. 18, 1965.
He had been stationed for a time in Okinawa, and in May 1965 went to Vietnam with the 3rd Marine Division.
In late summer 1965, U.S. intelligence learned that the Viet Cong was planning an attack on the American base at Chu Lai. The Marines designed Operation Starlight, an offensive in which three Marine battalions would block the assault. It was the first major engagement between the Americans and the Viet Cong, and the Marines weren’t yet familiar with the enemy’s guerrilla tactics.
At dawn on Aug. 18, O’Malley’s 3rd Battalion made an amphibious landing near the village of An Cu’ong 2. Almost immediately, more than 1,200 Viet Cong hidden in the ridges began to mortar the Marines, knocking out three tanks that were part of the operation. When O’Malley saw that the enemy was firing from a trench line beyond an open rice paddy, he charged toward it.
Leaping into the trench line, he killed eight soldiers with his rifle and hand grenades, then ran back to his squad. After aiding in the evacuation of several wounded Marines, he returned to the area of heaviest fighting and helped repel another assault.
O’Malley was finally ordered to evacuate his battered squad. As he led the way to a helicopter landing zone, he was hit by mortar shrapnel in his legs, arm, and lung and began coughing up blood. Despite his wounds, he moved to an exposed position so he could lay down suppressive fire as his men boarded a chopper. Only after they were all safely aboard did he allow himself to be removed from the battlefield.
It took more than four months for the shrapnel in his lungs to stop shifting so that O’Malley could be operated on. After undergoing surgery in Japan, he was sent back to Camp Pendleton and finished out his tour there, leaving the service in April 1966.
Late that fall, he was informed that he was to receive the Medal of Honor. When asked his reaction upon learning he would be receiving the nation's highest honor, O'Malley quipped, "I thought, hey, that's a good way to get out of inspection."
He was flown on Air Force One to Austin, Texas, where President Johnson was meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The president presented the medal to O’Malley on Dec. 6, 1966.
As the president tried to get the medal around O’Malley’s neck, O’Malley heard him mumble, “How do you put this darned thing on?”
O'Malley recalled that when LBJ asked if he could do anything for him, O'Malley's father, who had been flown to the ceremony with the rest of the O'Malley family on Air Force One, interjected that the family would like to attend one of LBJ's famous barbecues at his ranch. The president sent the O'Malleys to a restaurant to dine on corned beef and cabbage.
That did not sit too well with the war hero nor his family.
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1 comment(s)Soldier wrote on Jul 9, 2008 11:14 AM: