ORIGINAL SILVER STAR AWARD - 43 YEARS LATE
Los Angeles Times
VIETNAM VETERAN AWARDED SILVER STAR AFTER 43 YEARS BY ESMERALDA BERMUDEZ OCT. 4, 2009
It took 43 years, but Marine Pfc. Daniel Hernandez finally got his medal. And when he did Saturday morning in Boyle Heights, the Vietnam veteran stood up straight and proudly puffed out his chest, his eyes glistening with emotion. “His immediate and fearless actions, while himself painfully wounded, undoubtedly saved many lives,” said Marine Lt. Jim Lupori, reading from the Silver Star medal citation that, because of lost paperwork, was never awarded to Hernandez by the secretary of the Navy after he left Vietnam in the late 1960s.
The four-decade wait only made the honor more meaningful to Hernandez, 63, as several hundred relatives, friends and fellow veterans gathered for a ceremony in his honor at the Hollenbeck Youth Center. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-East Los Angeles) and a host of other state and city leaders attended. They came in support of a man they had known for decades as a community youth leader and president of the Hollenbeck Youth Center, which provides after-school programs to keep children away from gangs and drugs. Few knew Hernandez also was a war hero. “There’s a difference between action heroes in movies and action heroes in real life,” said Schwarzenegger, who has long collaborated with Hernandez on youth issues. “Danny is a real action hero.”
Hernandez was 20 when he served as a machine gunner with M Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. The company, which was among the hardest hit during the Vietnam War, lost 17 men on March 5, 1966, during Operation Utah in Quang Ngai province. That day, the citation notes, Hernandez dived through enemy fire to pick up a wounded Marine and carry him to safety. A bullet grazed his back. Still, he refused to be evacuated, and, moments later, when he saw an enemy soldier firing at a group of wounded Marines, he ran through oncoming bullets to kill the soldier and save his comrades. Another bullet later grazed his head, sending him to a hospital in Guam. During Saturday’s two-hour ceremony, Hernandez quietly looked on from the stage, now and then blushing and smiling timidly as two of his former supervisors retold the story in detail. Marines in the room, some of them former comrades who witnessed his bravery, cheered “Semper Fi!” and “Welcome home, Danny!”
Maj. Gen. John F. Kelly drove from Camp Pendleton to present the medal to Hernandez. “It takes a pretty special person to know you have a ticket out of that situation, and you still don’t take it,” he said. “Those men would have died had it not been for Danny.”
Heroic as it was, the act was not immediately recognized by the secretary of the Navy. Lupori, who was Hernandez’s commander during the battle, recommended the young man for the medal. Lupori was soon transferred to another battalion and lost contact with Hernandez, but he always assumed that Hernandez had been awarded the honor. Forty years later, Lupori found out that wasn’t the case.
By chance in 2005, another Marine brought the two men together for lunch. When Lupori congratulated Hernandez on the medal, Hernandez didn’t know anything about it. “It was then I decided to do everything in my power to get him his medal,” said Lupori, who believes the paperwork was lost in the military bureaucracy. Then retired, the lieutenant from Akron, Ohio, spent three years preparing the application. It was all the more challenging because so much time had passed. He had to track down witnesses to verify his claim and explain the delay. He flew across the United States, enlisted the help of several high-ranking political officials, scoured the Internet and made countless phone calls. Finally, earlier this year, Lupori was notified by the awards office that Hernandez’s medal was approved.
“I was elated and relieved,” he said. When Hernandez stepped behind the microphone, he thanked each of the people -- one by one -- who helped him receive the medal he now wore pinned to his black sweater. He dedicated the honor to all Marines and soldiers and the youths at Hollenbeck. “In my company,” he said. “I did not own valor. It was not exclusive to me. My company owned valor.”
Marine Corps Silver Star Recipient | Operation Utah | Vietnam Veteran | Community Activist | Danny Hernandez - By Ryan Fugit
Nov 5, 2022
Today we hear the Combat Story of Danny Hernandez, a Vietnam Veteran who served as a Marine rifleman in Operation Utah in March 1966. Danny would later be awarded the Silver Star and there is currently a push to have that upgraded to a Medal of Honor.
Danny came from the rough streets of East LA and after Vietnam would return to be a committed community activist and mentor for many of the kids who were not as fortunate as he was.
The Silver Star was certainly earned as Danny was shot twice while providing medical aid to a stranded and wounded Marine on the battlefield; refusing to be evacuated, and killing several enemy soldiers as they flanked the casualty collection point that Danny had just been sitting in.
Danny’s work on mentoring and building the community in his hometown is inspiring and you can’t help but laugh as you hear some of the stories of the Marine Corps back in the Vietnam era. Hear Sgt. Hernandez' amazing and heroic story directly from him using the link below.
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Find Ryan Online:
- - Learn more about Ryan www.combatstory.com/aboutus
SUPPORT FOR THIS UPGRADE From Captain Hubert Yoshida
Medal of Honor Award for Danny Hernandez
To Whom it May Concern:
My name is Hubert Yoshida. I was a 1st Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps and was the Platoon Commander of 1st Platoon, H Company, 7th Marines during one of the bloodiest battles in Marine Corps History during the Vietnam War, known as Operation Utah which occurred from 4 March to 7 March 1966. I decided to write a book about this battle and during the research for this book I came across the heroic story of Pfc Danny Hernandez, who was awarded a Silver Star , 43 years after Operation Utah.
In my research I came across many heroic acts which I documented from eye witness accounts and award citations. Danny’s action stood out as particularly courageous and I began to compare it with other higher awards that were given for similar actions in other battles in Vietnam, and came to the conclusion that Danny should be qualified for the highest award, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Of all the heroic acts that I reviewed, PFC Danny Hernandez' heroism stands out as particularly noteworthy. There were no Medals of Honor awarded during Operation Utah. There were four Navy Crosses, which ranks next to the Medal of Honor, that were awarded for the following actions during Operation Utah:
- GSgt Talmadge A. Downing M Company 3/1
Weapons Platoon Sgt who assaulted several enemy positions - LCpl George O. Norwood G Company 2/7
Fire team leader who assaulted an enemy machine gun nest - HN Samuel G. Orlando H&S Company 2/7 Posthumous award
Corpsman who exposed himself to enemy fire on numerous occasions to treat and save wounded Marines - Cpl Conrad A. Sipple G Company 2/4 Posthumous award
Exposed himself to enemy fire on four occasions to assist wounde Marines to safety
While these four men were deserving of their awards, PFC Hernandez did all this and more. Helping to take out a machine gun bunker, sacrificing himself to spare Marines who were about to enter a killing zone to rescue a fallen comrade, taking a bullet in the back while shielding a wounded Marine that he eventually rescued, putting himself in front of wounded Marines to divert the fire onto himself, refusing to be evacuated and continuing to fight and take out other enemy positions until he was shot in the head.
Danny Hernandez' Silver Star citation describes how he exposed himself to rescue a wounded Marine who was caught in the killing zone of an enemy machine gun nest, and despite being wounded himself in the lower back during the rescue, he refused evacuation and continued to fight. When a group of wounded Marines in a medevac area was under attack, Danny put himself between the attackers and the wounded Marines, drawing the enemy fire on himself while charging the enemy, firing his machine gun as he advanced despite his wounded condition. Although hampered by his wound, he was able to eliminate the threat and save the other wounded Marines. Although not mentioned in the citation was some of his other actions that day in providing covering fire in the destruction of an enemy machine gun nest and his ability to continue fighting and supporting his unit with essential machine gun fire, until he was wounded a second time in the head that evening.
One needs to understand that a machine gun team in the Marine Corps is part of a weapons platoon and is administered by the officers and NCOs of that platoon. During combat missions, the machine gun team is assigned to an Infantry platoon and often times, their contributions are not recognized by the platoon leaders of the unit they are assigned to. Their weapons platoon leaders would not be aware of what they are doing while they were assigned to an infantry platoon. The nomination and submission of any award takes a lot of administrative work and follow through by the unit leaders. Unfortunately, units like machine gun teams who are on assignment to another unit often fall through the cracks. For that reason, it is understandable that his original Silver Star award was not submitted for 43 years. Lieutenant Lupori's follow through on his award after all those years is commendable; however, I do not think it covered all of the story. PFC Hernandez was acting on his own and working with different units. There was no one person who witnessed all that PFC Hernandez did and many of the Marines and Corpsmen that witnessed his actions are no longer available.
I have read many citations of Medal of Honor awards and believe that this exceeds many of the awards where the recipient sacrificed their own safety and sometimes their lives to save their fellow comrades. Other awards were for aggressive actions which resulted in a victorious outcome, or refusing to give up the fight while severely wounded. Dany Hernandez' actions encompassed all these attributes.
Operation Utah is not as well-known as other battles like the Tet Offensive and the siege of Khe Sanh, but it was a pivotal battle in that it was the first battle between The U.S. Marine Corps and the regular North Vietnamese forces. The task Force commanders under estimated the strength of the enemy and pitted three under-staffed Battalions against at least one regiment of North Vietnamese and a regiment of VC who were dug into extensive fortified positions. Command and communications were fragmented and supporting air and artillery had no effect on the fortified positions. It was only the heroics of individual Marines like Danny Hernandez who saved the battle.
Hubert Yoshida
