Remarks Upon Presenting the Medal of Honor to Maj. Robert J. Modrzejewski and 2d Lt. John J. McGinty III, USMC

Major and Mrs. Modrzejewski and family; Lieutenant and Mrs. McGinty and family; Secretary Ignatius; General Chapman, Commandant of the Marine Corps; distinguished Members of the Congress; ladies and gentlemen:

We have just heard an extraordinary tribute to the courage of two men. They are Marines. They are comrades. They are heroes. But they are first and last--Americans.

In the story of their triumph, the voice of a people's character and a nation's greatness is brought before us. We should all understand that that is a voice with steel in it.

Last night I remembered another voice from another troubled and decisive time. I turned to the pages of a book where another President spoke to this Nation in time of a war. He told of the stories of courage and heroism on far battlefields. He called for the same strength of character and staunchness of spirit in every American home here and in every American heart.

Said President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the early months of another Pacific war: "As we here at home contemplate our own duties and our own responsibilities, let us think, and let us think hard, of the example which is being set for us by our fighting men. Our soldiers and our sailors are members of well-disciplined units. But they are still and forever individuals--free individuals. They are farmers and workers, businessmen, professional men, artists, and clerks. They are the United States of America. That is why they fight. We, too, are the United States of America."

Americans loathed war in that day, too. Forced to fight a war, Americans were impatient and frustrated by setbacks.

President Roosevelt also spoke to that anxiety when he said, 5 months after Pearl Harbor, "We have had no illusions about the fact that this is a tough job--and a long one." And this Nation has no illusions now. This is an anxious time for America. it calls for every fiber of our courage, every resource of our intelligence, every capacity for sound judgment that the American people can summon--and that the American people possess.

I think if we are steady, if we are patient, if we do not become the willing victims of our own despair, if we do not abandon what we know is right when it comes under mounting challenge--we shall never fail.

Responsibility never comes easy. Neither does freedom come free.

These brave men whom we have asked to come here to the East Room today and whom we honor now, know that better than we, perhaps. They know in the most immediate way that men can ever know it. They know it in the face of an aggressor's fire.

Major Modrzejewski and Lieutenant McGinty stand in the long unbroken rank of heroes who have been this Nation's pride and have been this Nation's strength from the beginning when America itself as Lafayette once said "was a dream that every man carried in his heart."

Men like these Marines have seen America all through our troubled periods. They have fought with valor, in the early months, the enemy's expanded war, when the regular units of the North Vietnamese Army were beginning to cross the border as aggressors in significant size.

Today, the enemy force waging destruction south of the DMZ is made up of many, many regular units who have already invaded their neighbor nation from the north. International aggression is open now and it is undisguised.

The early pretense of attempting to fool some of the people some of the time that this was only a civil war has now had the cloak pulled from around it and even they have abandoned it, as have their spokesmen.

So let us have no illusions about that, either. And let no one ever suffer any illusions about the will and about the faith of free men, the American fighting man, the family of citizens who stand by him here and who stand by him out there.

Yes, we all loathe war. Yes, we argue about war. But we are one people and we have learned the hard lesson of history.

President Franklin Roosevelt had to say it and he said it with a heavy heart. I must repeat it now and my heart is heavy, too.

"The price for civilization must be paid in hard work and must be paid in sorrow and in blood--and the price is not too high."

But my heart this morning is proud and it is confident, too. I look at these two gallant Marines and I see America. I see in their countenance the answer to aggression. I see in their face the certainty of freedom and I see in their presence the hope and the promise of peace.

Secretary Ignatius will now read the citations.

[Text of citations read by Secretary Ignatius]

The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to

MAYOR ROBERT J. MODRZEJEWSKI
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

for service as set forth in the following

CITATION:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Commanding Officer, Company K, Third Battalion, Fourth Marines, Third Marine Division, in the Republic of Vietnam from 15 to 18 July 1966. On 15 July, during Operation HASTINGS, Company K was landed in an enemy infested jungle area to establish a blocking position at a major enemy trail network. Shortly after landing, the company encountered a reinforced enemy platoon in a well organized, defensive position. Major (then Captain) Modrzejewski led his men in the successful seizure of the enemy redoubt, which contained large quantities of ammunition and supplies. That evening a numerically superior enemy force counterattacked in an effort to retake the vital supply area, thus setting the pattern of activity for the next two and one-half days. In the first series of attacks, the enemy assaulted repeatedly in overwhelming numbers but each time was repulsed by the gallant Marines. The second night the enemy struck in battalion strength, and Major Modrzejewski was wounded in this intensive action which was fought at close quarters. Although exposed to enemy fire, and despite his painful wounds, he crawled 200 meters to provide critically needed ammunition to an exposed element of his command and was constantly present wherever the fighting was heaviest. Despite numerous casualties, a dwindling supply of ammunition and the knowledge that they were surrounded, he skillfully directed artillery fire to within a few meters of his position and courageously inspired the efforts of his company in repelling the aggressive enemy attack. On 18 July, Company K was attacked by a regimental size enemy o force. Although his unit was vastly outnumbered and weakened by the previous fighting, Major Modrzejewski reorganized his men and calmly moved among them to encourage and direct their efforts to heroic limits as they fought to overcome the vicious enemy onslaught. Again he called in air and artillery strikes at close range with devastating effect on the enemy, which together with the bold and determined fighting of the men of Company K, repulsed the fanatical attack of the larger North Vietnamese force. His unparalleled personal heroism and indomitable leadership inspired his men to a significant victory over the enemy force and reflected great credit upon himself, the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

The President of the United States in the name of the Congress takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to

SECOND LIEUTENANT JOHN J. MCGINTY III
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

for service as set forth in the following

CITATION:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Acting Platoon Leader, First Platoon, Company K, Third Battalion, Fourth Marines, Third Marine Division, in the Republic of Vietnam on 18 July 1966. Second Lieutenant (then Staff Sergeant) McGinty's platoon, which was providing rear security to protect the withdrawal of the battalion from a position which had been under attack for three days, came under heavy small arms, automatic weapons and mortar fire from an estimated enemy regiment. With each successive human wave which assaulted his thirty-two-man platoon during the four-hour battle, Second Lieutenant McGinty rallied his men to beat off the enemy. In one bitter assault, two of the squads became separated from the remainder of the platoon. With complete disregard for his safety, Second Lieutenant McGinty charged through intense automatic weapons and mortar fire to their position. Finding twenty men wounded and the medical corpsman killed, he quickly reloaded ammunition magazines and weapons for the wounded men and directed their fire upon the enemy. Although he was painfully wounded as he moved to care for the disabled men, he continued to shout encouragement to his troops and to direct their fire so effectively that the attacking hordes were beaten off. When the enemy tried to out-flank his position, he killed five of them at point-blank range with his pistol. When they again seemed on the verge of overrunning the small force, he skillfully adjusted artillery and air strikes within fifty yards of his position. This destructive fire power routed the enemy, who left an estimated 500 bodies on the battlefield. Second Lieutenant McGinty's personal heroism, indomitable leadership, selfless devotion to duty, and bold fighting spirit inspired his men to resist the repeated attacks by a fanatical enemy, reflected great credit upon himself, and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON