Medal of Honor Recipient John Baca Focused on Healing Others

Whiting: These Vietnam veterans help so others will never be abandoned again
Orange County Register
BY DAVID WHITING / STAFF
April 24, 2015

Medal of Honor recipient John Baca, left, is greeted by Ret. Army Sgt. Greg Young of Yorba Linda before a service for their friend at Miramar National Cemetery.
CINDY YAMANAKA, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Surrounded by the trees and hills of Julian, Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipient John Baca flips through a binder of thank you cards for the apple pies he sends veterans. At his elbow, the widow of one of this nation’s first combat casualties after 9/11 beams.

It is a moment of friendship, of sharing, of a bridge between two wars. But it is also about much more.

The thank you cards – and the bond between Baca and Mary Ellen Bancroft, both wounded in very different ways by very different wars – embody the legacy of America’s Vietnam veterans.

Shunned by many, including the American Legion, the Vietnam Veterans of America is the largest and most active group of veterans in the U.S. Its motto: "Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another."

A former Orange County resident, Baca has a park named after him in Huntington Beach. But as appreciative as Baca is for the recognition, the soldier who threw himself on a grenade to save eight buddies is not a man who pays much attention to such things.

Baca and other warriors like him focus on reaching out to families like Bancroft’s and helping veterans both young and old deal with such things as navigating VA hospitals, managing finances, coping with PTSD.
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John Baca Medal of Honor
Official Citation:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Specialist Fourth Class Baca, Company D, distinguished himself while serving on a recoilless rifle team during a night ambush mission A platoon from his company was sent to investigate the detonation of an automatic ambush device forward of his unit's main position and soon came under intense enemy fire from concealed positions along the trail.

Hearing the heavy firing from the platoon position and realizing that his recoilless rifle team could assist the members of the besieged patrol, Specialist Fourth Class Baca led his team through the hail of enemy fire to a firing position within the patrol's defensive perimeter.

As they prepared to engage the enemy, a fragmentation grenade was thrown into the midst of the patrol.

Fully aware of the danger to his comrades, Specialist Fourth Class Baca unhesitatingly, and with complete disregard for his own safety, covered the grenade with his steel helmet and fell on it as the grenade exploded, thereby absorbing the lethal fragments and concussion with his body. His gallant action and total disregard for his personal well-being directly saved 8 men from certain serious injury or death.

The extraordinary courage and selflessness displayed by Specialist Fourth Class Baca, at the risk of his life, are in the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the U.S. Army.