On the night of April 1, 1970, 19yr old Sgt. Peter C. Lemon and 18 other men from the 1st Cav were tasked with defending a small portion of Fire Support Base Illingsworth,Tay Ninh Province (Vietnam). The small American outpost came under attack by a massive force of NVA soldiers. Sgt. Lemon held off the first wave of attackers with his machinegun and hand grenades, until his weapon malfunctioned and resorted to hand to hand combat. During the fight, he was wounded in the head, neck and back by shrapnel. Despite the wounds, Sgt. Lemon continued to fight off a second wave and began carrying wounded men to safety where he was wounded once more. Again, with no regards for his personal injuries, he continued to fight off the enemy with hand grenades and more hand to hand combat until he was wounded a third time. Still, he continued to fight against a third wave by climbing on top of a burm, fully exposed, firing his machinegun until he collapsed from the loss of blood. Sgt. Lemon woke up in aid station and ordered to evacuate all the wounded first. Only then, the badly wounded Sgt. finally left the battlefield.
The fight resulted in the death of 3 of his best friends and everyone within this group was either dead or wounded.
For his actions, Sgt. Lemon was awarded the Medal of Honor. Making him the 8th youngest recipient and the only Canadian-born U.S citizen to receive it during the Vietnam war.
Years later, one his close friends asked him: "Where do you keep your Medal? How come you never wear it?" Pete replied: "It's in a shoebox in my closet. I don't wear it because it isn't mine. It belongs to Casey Waller, Nathan Mann, Brent Street, and the guys in the unit." #stayzero #zerofoxtrot #hero #badass #vietnamwar