Medal of Honor Monday: John Earl Warren, Jr.
“I said to him, ‘Don’t be no hero,” his sister remembered. “But he never looked back at us."
At about this time in 1969, a hero engages in an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. John Earl Warren, Jr. is credited with saving the lives of three of his fellow soldiers.
He was just 22 years old.
The young man had been drafted into the Army while still a student at Brooklyn College. His family remembers that he didn’t grumble about being pulled out of school. Instead, he described Army training as difficult but also something he’d been proud to complete.
By then, he was a black man living off-post with white officers, but his family felt welcomed when they came to visit. They could also tell that Warren was liked and respected.
Warren was deployed to Vietnam in October 1968. Before he left, he threw himself the “party of all parties,” as his mother Lillian would say. He invited 200 people to his three-day bash. Lillian later concluded that Warren must have felt in his gut that he wasn’t coming home.
His sister Gloria came to a similar conclusion because of what happened the last time she saw him, as he departed for Vietnam. “I said to him, ‘Don’t be no hero,” she recollected. “But he never looked back at us. He just kept going, and years later I thought about it. Did he know he wasn’t coming home?”
Perhaps he did?!
First Lt. Warren’s heroism came on January 14, 1969, in Tay Ninh province, South Vietnam. He was serving as a platoon leader as his company moved to reinforce another unit. Suddenly, our boys came under heavy fire.
Warren and a handful of his men began working their way through the intense barrage, seeking to take out the enemy bunkers that were causing so much trouble. They were within six feet of one enemy position when a grenade suddenly landed nearby.
“Thinking only of his men,” Warren’s Medal citation concludes, “1st Lt. Warren fell in the direction of the grenade, thus shielding those around him from the blast. His action, performed at the cost of his life, saved three men from serious or mortal injury.”
It was a simple act—but a stunningly heroic one. Warren’s bravery was soon recognized with a Medal of Honor. His family was proud, although Gloria thought her mom “never was the same after losing her only son.”
In 1995, the Moving Wall, a replica of the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial, came within a few miles of Lillian’s home. She had never visited the real wall, but she went to visit the replica. “You know you’ll never forget losing your son,” she told a reporter, “but this helps ease the pain.”
What would she have thought if she’d lived long enough to see a street named for her son at Fort Hamilton, in Brooklyn, nearly three years ago? She’d passed away by then, but Gloria was at the naming ceremony.
Gloria was asked how her brother would want to be remembered.
“He might want people to know that he was proud to be a Soldier in the United States Army,” Gloria concluded, “and to not be afraid to help your fellow man.”
Rest in peace, Sir.
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The whole thought of sacrificing yourself for others is at the base of Christian living. 1st Lt. Warren, you exemplified how our lives can be led--not by saving yourself, but putting others first. RIP sir, your deeds go before you.
To willingly lay down one’s life for the sake of others is a remarkable thing to do. It overrides our natural instinct toward self-preservation. It speaks to that deep character of a person and their sense of responsibility for their fellow soldiers. Warren proved his character in what I am sure became a long few seconds. May he rest in peace.