Posted on 04/06/2024 6:30:25 AM PDT by daniel1212
Joe Ronnie Hooper had his share non-judicial punishments (authorized by Article 15 of UCMJ), racked up 115 confirmed kills and was awarded the Medal of Honor. He was also one of the most decorated soldiers in American international combat.
Born in the summer of 1938 in South Carolina, Joe Ronnie Hooper was relocated as a child to Moses Lake, Washington where he attended Moses Lake High School...
Originally a Navy man, Hooper first enlisted in December of 1956. After graduation... Hooper enlisted in the US Army as a Private First Class...
Now a Staff Sergeant, Hooper requested a tour in Vietnam but was sent to Panama instead as a Platoon Sergeant. Unable to stay out of trouble while he was there, he was the subject of several Article 15 hearings and was eventually demoted to Corporal. However, he eventually got his Sergeant stripes back and deployed with the 101st to Vietnam in December of 1967, taking on the role of a Squad Leader...
On February 21st, 1968, Hooper and his company were beginning an assault on an enemy position when they came under fire by everything from machine guns to rockets.
According to his Medal of Honor citation, Hooper's unit "was assaulting a heavily defended enemy position along a river bank when it encountered a withering hail of fire from rockets, machine guns, and automatic weapons. Staff Sergeant Hooper rallied several men and stormed across the river, overrunning several bunkers on the opposite shore.
Thus inspired, the rest of the company moved to the attack. With utter disregard for his own safety, he moved out under the intense fire again and pulled back the wounded, moving them to safety. During this act, Hooper was seriously wounded, but he refused medical aid and returned to his men. With the relentless enemy fire disrupting the attack, he single-handedly stormed 3 enemy bunkers, destroying them with a hand grenade and rifle fire, and shot 2 enemy soldiers who had attacked and wounded the Chaplain.
Leading his men forward in a sweep of the area, Hooper destroyed three buildings housing enemy riflemen. At this point, he was attacked by a North Vietnamese officer whom he fatally wounded with his bayonet. Finding his men under heavy fire from a house to the front, he proceeded alone to the building, killing its occupants with rifle fire and grenades. By now, his initial body wound had been compounded by grenade fragments, yet despite the multiple wounds and loss of blood, he continued to lead his men against the intense enemy fire.
As his squad reached the final line of enemy resistance, it received devastating fire from four bunkers in line on its left flank. Hooper gathered several hand grenades and raced down a small trench which ran the length of the bunker line, tossing grenades into each bunker as he passed by, killing all but two of the occupants.
With these positions destroyed, he concentrated on the last bunkers facing his men, destroying the first with an incendiary grenade and neutralizing two more by rifle fire. He then raced across an open field, still under enemy fire, to rescue a wounded man who was trapped in a trench. Upon reaching the man, he was faced by an armed enemy soldier whom he killed with a pistol.
Moving his comrade to safety and returning to his men, he neutralized the final pocket of enemy resistance by fatally wounding three North Vietnamese officers with rifle fire. Hooper then established a final line and reorganized his men, not accepting (medical) treatment until this was accomplished and not consenting to evacuation until the following morning."
While he was discharged from the Infantry upon his return from Vietnam in 1968, he managed to re-enlist and serve as a Public Affairs specialist until President Richard Nixon awarded him the Medal of Honor in 1969.
Hooper eventually managed to finagle his way back into the Infantry, serving a second tour in Vietnam as a pathfinder with the 101st Airborne. By 1970, he had been commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, though he was discharged from an active commission shortly after due to inadequate educational requirements.
Discharged and a little sour about it, Hooper managed to retain his commission in the Army Reserve's 12th Special Forces Group before being transferred to a training unit. Though he was eventually promoted to Captain, he was discharged a final time in 1978 after a spotty drill record. ...
He became one of the most decorated soldiers in the Vietnam War....
In addition to the Medal of Honor, Hooper was also awarded two Silver Stars, 6 Bronze Stars with "V" Devices, an Air Medal, the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm and 8 Purple Hearts.
He was found dead in a hotel room in Louisville, Kentucky on May 5, 1979, having suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in his sleep at the age of 40.
But, let's not forget the second phase starting April 29th thru the end of May 68, affectionately known as 'mini tet' to those that didn't get caught up in it and considered it the full opposite of 'mini'.
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The mini-Tet offensive officially stopped on May 13, but it would take the U.S. and ARVN forces another two weeks to retake the last area occupied by the Communists. Overall, mini Tet had been another tactical failure for the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong, largely because American intelligence gathering and analysis had greatly improved thanks to lessons learned from Tet. In most cases, the Communists failed to achieve surprise and found U.S. and ARVN forces ready for them when they struck. For the month of May 1968, U.S. troops killed in action exceeded 2,000, the heaviest casualties of the war thus far. ............................................................
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