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Kern Wayne Dunagan (February 20, 1934 – December 27, 1991) was a United States Army officer and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in the Vietnam War. ==Biography== Dunagan joined the Army from Los Angeles, California, and by May 13, 1969, was serving as a captain in Company A, 1st Battalion, 46th Infantry Regiment, Americal Division. During a firefight starting on May 12 and finally ending on May 14, 1969, in Quang Tin Province, Republic of Vietnam, Dunagan showed conspicuous leadership as he organized his men and rescued wounded soldiers despite his own serious wounds. Dunagan was wounded on two occasions during this ferocious battle, fought four kilometers west of his battalion's firebase at LZ Professional. Still, with his company of soldiers, along with the Reconnaissance Platoon, of Echo Company, 1/46th, commanded by 1Lt David Waltz, they successfully fought off wave after wave from a battalion of Viet Cong Regulars in near, hand-to-hand combat conditions. Dunagan was first severely wounded in the face in the early evening of May 13 during a mortar attack. With the lack of line officers in Alpha Company a primary consideration, he refused to be evacuated and thus, separated from his men. Dunagan was the only line officer with Alpha at the time. Echo Company's Waltz was the only other infantry officer present. The Alpha platoons were led by capable enlisted men. Throughout the ensuing night of May 13 and morning of May 14, the attack was unrelenting and Dunagan was again seriously wounded for a 2nd time with two gunshot wounds he got while he was rescuing a pinned down recon soldier. Again, he refused to be evacuated. Another company of the 1/46th, Charlie, commanded by 1Lt Walt Brownlee, maneuvered to within shouting distance of Alpha Company, but two attempts to link the units failed, with many killed and severely wounded in each company. In the end, after losing many of his men during those two days, Dunagan was finally able to maneuver his remaining 42 men by way of a plan struck in the final hours of daylight of May 14, 1969. Dunagan and the base commander, Lieutenant Colonel G. R. Underhill, of the battalion fire base, LZ Professional, approximately four kilometers to the east of the battle, decided to have the base artillery units attempt to throw up as much smoke - in as many ways they could muster - to conceal Dunagan and his men as they made their final attempt to escape an extremely aggressive enemy. Had the plan not worked, it was considered doubtful that Dunagan and the men of Company A would have survived the enemy onslaught. The U.S. base's barrage of incendiary artillery rounds seemed to make the difference as Dunagan and his remaining 42 troops were afforded a blanket of smoke in which to make their way across a wet, soggy, open field to where Charlie Company had formed a perimeter. Charlie Company massed it's M-60 machine guns on either side of the corridor through which Dunagan's men would pass and laid down a withering base of fire to keep the enemy down as Alpha and Echo-Recon maneuvered through the smoke screen to safety. Eventually, most of the surviving men made their way back. Yet, not all was secured, as the battalion of N. Vietnamese Army was aggressively following the men of Company A. After Dunagan insisted on going back into the inferno to look for surviving soldiers, he finally located one wounded soldier, Sgt Bob Tullos of Echo-Recon, who had a foot amputated by one of the white phosphorus rounds. Five other men of the team Tullos was with were alive, but stunned, wounded and disoriented. They would be Missing In Action for two days until walking into the perimeter of Bravo Company, 1/46 about three kilometers east of the battle. Placing Tullos on his shoulders, Dunagan made his way back to the Charlie Company perimeter. Captain Dunagan spent the next weeks of May and June 1969, in Tokyo, Japan with a shattered cheek bone, two broken molars, two gunshot wounds resulting in two broken arm bones, a broken foot and several other cuts and bruises. After surgeries to repair his wounds and recuperation, he was sent stateside to resume his career. In 1985, a skin cancer melanoma was found in a mole on Dunagan's neck. The cancer would eventually metastasize in his inner organs and in 1991, Dunagan died. Dunagan was subsequently promoted to major and awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. Dunagan reached the rank of colonel before leaving the Army. He died at age 57 of cancer and was buried in San Francisco National Cemetery, San Francisco, California. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kern W. Dunagan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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