President Donald Trump next month will award the Medal of Honor to an Arkansas native who showed "conspicuous gallantry" in the Vietnam War, according to a news release from the White House.
Retired Marine Sgt. Maj. John Canley will be honored with the highest U.S. military honor on Oct. 17. Canley is from the Caledonia area near El Dorado. He now lives in Oxnard, Calif.
Canley, who enlisted in the Marines in Little Rock, fended off multiple enemy attacks in the early stages of the Tet Offensive in 1968 as his company moved along a highway toward Hue City, Vietnam, to reinforce friendly forces that were surrounded, according to congressional records.
Wounded, Canley rescued several injured Marines under enemy fire, and he took command of the company after its commander was severely wounded. Canley led multiple counterattacks on fortified enemy positions.
Later, at a hospital compound, Canley twice climbed a wall within the view of enemy forces to carry wounded Marines to safety. More than a dozen eyewitnesses have confirmed Canley's heroism, according to U.S. Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif.
Brownley sought the Medal of Honor for Canley after she was approached by one of his fellow service members in 2014. Canley attended the president's State of the Union address in Washington on Jan. 30 as Brownley's guest, according to a February article in the El Dorado News-Times.
"Sergeant Major Canley is a shining example of why our Armed Forces are the best military in the world, and his heroism and bravery showcases what being an American hero truly means," Brownley said in a Tuesday news release. "I am so happy that the White House has announced that he will receive the Medal of Honor for his gallantry during the Vietnam War."
The Medal of Honor is to be awarded within five years of a heroic event, but Congress passed special legislation in January to waive the time limit to allow Canley to receive the award. In July, Trump announced plans to honor Canley.
"I am accepting this on behalf of all the Marines I had the honor of serving with in Vietnam and who continue to be an inspiration to me everyday," Canley said in a news release. "Their bravery and sacrifice is unparalleled."
Canley told the News-Times that he left El Dorado at age 15 to join the Marines. He spent 28 years in the service.
"It was about 21 days before I was 16," Canley told the News-Times. "I took my brother's birth certificate. On my birth certificate it says J. L. My brother's name was L. J., so I was able to switch it around and convince the recruiter to let me take the test."
Canley was awarded the Navy Cross, the country's second-highest medal of valor, in 1970, and he is also decorated with the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.
Canley's fellow Marines still talk about him glowingly.
"One man in front of our position was hit and we were being kept down from incoming fire. As the Lieutenant was calling in fire support, Gunny [Canley] directed fire on the enemy then at risk to himself he got up and ran to the injured man, picked him up, and carried him to safety, all the time while taking fire," Paul Patterson, one of Canley's fellow service members, said in a news release. "[Canley] was a man who inspired men, he was a Marine's Marine.
"There was not place that [Canley] would ask us to go that we would not follow."
Since its inception in 1861, the president, in the name of Congress, has awarded more than 3,400 Medals of Honor. It's given to members of the armed forces "who distinguish themselves conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of their own lives above and beyond the call of duty."
"There must be no margin of doubt or possibility of error in awarding this honor," according to a White House news release. "To justify this decoration, the deed performed must have been one of personal bravery and self-sacrifice so conspicuous as to clearly distinguish the individual above his or her comrades, and must have involved risk of life."
Metro on 09/26/2018