John McGinty III | Medal recipient, 73

John McGinty III, 73, a retired Marine Corps captain who received the Medal of Honor for his efforts to lead, protect, and rally his outnumbered platoon during an assault in a jungle in Vietnam, died Jan. 17 at his home in Beaufort, S.C.

The cause was bone cancer, said his son Michael.

Capt. McGinty was awarded the nation's highest military decoration for valor during a battle in the summer of 1966. On July 15, then a staff sergeant, he helicoptered with his battalion into a location near the demilitarized zone where the men expected to find Vietcong guerrillas. Instead, they were met with a full regiment of the North Vietnamese army.

The Americans took control of an enemy hospital and endured two more days of battle before receiving an order to withdraw, according to the book Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty. His platoon was tasked with protecting the men from the rear as they destroyed downed U.S. helicopters and made their way out.

Capt. McGinty's platoon came under attack from small-arms, automatic-weapons, and mortar fire. He rushed through the barrage to reach two squadrons that had been cut off. The medical corpsman was dead. Twenty comrades were wounded. Capt. McGinty reloaded their weapons and helped them go on fighting.

He, too, had been hurt but continued leading a relentless assault.

When the enemy seemed to revive, he called in artillery and air strikes within 50 yards of his location - a move said to have "routed" the North Vietnamese.

- Washington Post