Born Hero

Some people become heroes by responding to the circumstances that they are in, while others are just natural born heroes and look for the circumstances in which to let loose their inner selves. I personally don’t know which is more desirable or which is more truly heroic, but I do know one thing; Colonel Robert Lewis Howard falls into the latter category. He was some man. Considering that he did a total of five tours in Vietnam, he has to be one of the Army’s most combat-seasoned veterans ever.

Howard won the Medal of Honor (MOH), Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Defense Superior Service Medal, four awards of the Legion of Merit, four Bronze Stars, and eight Purple Hearts. When evaluated by the number of promotions he received, military decorations he received, level of education he attained, and the results he produced; he has to be considered the most successful US Army Soldier of all time.

Here are some snippets of information about his life and career: 

Bob Howard was born July 11, 1939, in Opelika, Alabama. He enlisted in the Army in 1956, went to Jump School as a private and joined the 101st Airborne Division. He began as he meant to finish. He was the quintessential Paratrooper.

In 1965, during his first tour of duty in Vietnam, Howard was wounded by a bullet that ricocheted off his weapon and gashed his face, leaving scars which were to last forever. While recuperating in a Combat Support Hospital, he was recruited into the Special Forces. This is where his career as it came to be known began.

He became an SF Demolitions man and having had a taste of action, he wanted more. As such, he became part of the Vietnamese Studies and Observation Group or “SOG,” which were involved in covert operations in Cambodia and Laos along the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) maintained Ho Chi Min Trail. In SF parlance, he went ‘Sneaky Pete.’ This is where his life started to become interesting.

SFC Howard with SOG Team Members

As an example of his behavior, when he was in a rear echelon area and standing in a chow line, a Viet Cong (VC) motorcycle team lobbed a grenade into the mess facility. Everyone but Howard dove for cover. Howard snatched an M-16 from a petrified guard, dropped to one knee, shot the driver and chased the passenger for almost a half mile before killing him too.

Most of the SOG missions would be to go into the NVA’s backyard, set up and monitor the trail and at prearranged times, they would then use code burster devices to radio the intel about what was passing along the trail. The operations people would calculate speed and distance of the elements moving along the trail and set up aerial ambushes to fire upon the bad guys when they were well out of the SOG operating area. The overall SOG mission was to disrupt traffic along the trail, remove enemy combat resources from the battle area and to divert enemy resources sent out to look for the ‘Sneaky Pete’ operations.

A "Moonbeam" flying a fire support mission.  The Moonbeams were C119's converted into night-time flying gun platforms 

For every SOG team member on the ground the NVA would, at times, commit in excess of 100 of their own men to find them. Most members of SOG were content to do their duty, call in the intel and stay alive, but not Bob Howard.

During the night on one such occasion, he lay alongside a Laotian portion of the “Trail” when an NVA convoy drove past with fresh troops headed for the battlefields in the south. Running alongside an enemy truck in pitch blackness, he spun an armed claymore mine over his head, then threw it among the Soldiers crammed into the back of the truck and detonated it. With his team, he then beat feet out of the area.

The NVA didn’t know where the attack came from. With the noise of the convoy’s engines and the trucks bouncing along, it could have been an aerial attack and they just didn’t hear the aircraft. That would have been probable, but whatever they thought, the SOG team was out of the area by the time the NVA was able to respond.

In one 13 month time frame, he was nominated for the Medal of Honor three times. Previously, no one had ever been nominated more than twice.

The first action that got Howard nominated for the MOH came in November, 1967. He was now a Sergeant First Class and he was with a larger SOG element sent to destroy a large and vital enemy cache. Howard screened forward and confronted a large enemy force. He killed four enemy Soldiers and then took out an NVA sniper. He then happened upon two machine gun crews that had slipped away. The gun crews unknowingly moved in and set up in directly front of him (one being just inches from Howard’s face.) The gun began blazing away and Howard was temporarily pinned down under the muzzle of the gun. At point blank range, he opened up with his rifle, killed that gun crew and then lobbed a grenade into one of the other gun positions, knocking it out too. Being so rapidly, violently and effectively engaged; the enemies were stunned. They knew neither the location of their opposition or the numbers. Howard’s muzzle flash had mixed in with the crew’s own light and noise and his grenade seemed to come from nowhere. Confused and panicked, they withdrew.

That nomination for the MOH was downgraded to a Silver Star for mission security.

This is a photograph from the Green Beret magazine showing SFC Howard being awarded an Oak Leaf Cluster for
his DSC. This was for the action for which he ultimately received the MOH; but it occurred during the indecision
concerning security and before the MOH was actually awarded to him.

The second nomination came a little over eleven months later. He was with a larger SOG force, but he single-handedly knocked out an enemy PT-76 tank, a day later he wiped out an anti-aircraft gun crew, and afterward he rescued the crew of a downed Huey. Repeatedly wounded, he bled from his arms, legs, back and face, but he refused to be evacuated. He was again nominated for a MOH, and it was again downgraded for security reasons, but this time to a Distinguished Service Cross.

The third nomination for the MOH got muddled in red tape and intelligence matters. After being downgraded then restored and downgraded again, it was finally awarded. To read about that action, read the previous entry.

After the MOH engagement, Howard was evacuated to a Combat Support Hospital. He was burned and slashed by shrapnel but fearing that he would be sent to Japan or Walter Reed, he went AWOL from the hospital. He hitched a lift on a Huey and went back to the front wearing only his pajamas. Howard trusted the SF medics for cleansing, debridement of the dead flesh around his wounds and removing the sutures.

On a subsequent mission, Howard was now a Master Sergeant and was the NCO in charge but after sustained firefights he became the senior man on the ground and was given a battlefield commission to First Lieutenant. There were other senior Sergeants on the mission and the promotion was made to give Howard the unquestionable authority to give the orders to follow through and complete the mission.

The man was a legend. During the Paris Peace Talks, the US maintained that the North was engaged in the fighting in the South, which they of course denied. To settle that discussion, when Howard happened upon an NVA Lieutenant Colonel operating in the South, he captured the man. He handed the officer over so that the he could be presented in person in Paris to prove the North’s fighting presence.

Howard carrying a wounded NVA prisoner and showing compassion that is beyond what would be expected.

It would have been more expedient to simply kill the LTC. But a live and talking prisoner beats a cold dead body, so Howard gave them a live prisoner. Simple… or rather, simple for Howard. Furthermore, Howard never killed anyone needlessly.

Another incident that typified Howard’s combat experience was when he was notified that he had finally been approved for the MOH. General Westmoreland had to pull him out of another fire fight to tell him, of course.

But that was Howard. In SF, the name Howard was then the byword for thinking outside the box and doing everything with nothing. It was passed down that when you got in a precarious situation, you were meant to ask yourself, “What would Howard do?”

Captain Howard after receiving the Medal of Honor from President Nixon.

In typical Bob Howard style, prior to the MOH ceremony he was told that there would be a Marine Corps band playing and that the ceremony was formal so he was meant to wear Dress Blues. Howard said that there were going to have to be some changes. He was an Army man, so there would be an Army band. Furthermore, he was a Paratrooper and he would be wearing his Class A uniform with bloused boots. (Don’t try to understand that unless you are Airborne. It’s a Paratrooper thing.)

He stood up to the protocol coordinator so he contacted the Secretary of Defense. Howard also stood up to him. Howard’s grandfather had been killed in WWI; and in WWII, his father and three of his uncles were all Army Airborne and had all died from combat wounds. He modeled himself after his dad and had gone Airborne to emulate him. To him, the MOH ceremony would be a private memorial dedicated to his family.

After the award ceremony, at which then President Nixon presented him with the MOH, Nixon asked Howard what he would like to do. Nixon gave Howard his choice of any number of options from a private lunch with the President to a private tour of the White House. Howard simply asked to be taken to the Tombs of the Unknown Soldiers where he wanted to share his thoughts and commune with those who had gone before him. Howard connected with the war dead of our country and he wanted time to share his emotions with them.

Major Howard at the dedication of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, DC.

He was also a huge force behind the development and idea for a Vietnam Veteran’s memorial and he was always a supporter of it after its dedication.

He received a bachelor's degree in administration from Texas Christian University in 1973 and received two master's degrees from Central Michigan University; one in management in 1980 and the other in public administration in 1981.

After retiring from the military, he worked at the Department of Veterans Affairs as a liaison to other veterans.

He retired in 2006 after 52 years of government service that included 14 years with the VA.

His thirty six years of military service included over 33 years on airborne
status.

Colonel Howard prior to his retirement.  The years were weighing heavy but the scars were still visible.

 
For the VA, he frequently made trips to battle zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan to speak with troops to ensure that they knew how to proceed with the VA once they separated. For the troops, as still-serving Soldiers, he talked about his experiences to inspire them and to give them hope.

Bob Howard often expressed a variation of what Jesus is noted for saying, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and render unto God what is God’s.” But Howard’s expression was something like, “Never forget your country or your God.” Those are some pretty good words to live by.

The Medal of Honor

Colonel Howard died on December 23rd 2009. Time and secondary effects of his wounds finally did what the enemy never could.