Second Lieutenant John. P. Bobo was not in an enviable position on March 30, 1967, when his company was ambushed by Viet Cong. Heavy machine-gun and mortar fire rained down. Outnumbered and outgunned, Bobo’s team took heavy casualties. A mortar blew off the bottom half of Bobo’s leg, but that barely slowed him down. The Lieutenant wrapped the stump with a web belt and continued to pour fire down on the VC.
Behind the Americans lay a better position, from which the team could evacuate. But not with the VC raining down hell on them. Medics tried to pull Bobo out and evacuate him, but he refused. Instead, he jammed the end of his stump in the dirt to slow the bleeding, pointed his belt-fed M60 at the enemy, and told his team to get out.
The Lieutenant stayed behind, laying down suppressive fire. Bobo never took his finger off the trigger, running thousands of belt-fed rounds through the overheating barrel of his M60. Bobo’s vicious spree stopped that entire advancing VC battalion just long enough for his team to get away.
We honor you, John Bobo.