John Baca

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John P. Baca
January 10, 1949
John P. Baca, Medal of Honor recipient
Place of birth	Providence, Rhode Island
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army
Rank	Specialist Fourth Class
Unit	1st Cavalry Division.
Awards	Medal of Honor Silver Star Bronze Star Purple Heart

John P. Baca (born January 10, 1949) is a former United States Army soldier who was awarded the Medal of Honor for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty" during the Vietnam War.

1 Medal of Honor citation
2 After the war
3 Decorations
4 See also
5 References

[edit] Medal of Honor citation

JOHN P. BACA Rank and organization:Specialist Fourth Class, U.S. Army, Company D, 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division. Place and date:Phuoc Long Province, Republic of Vietnam, 10 February 1970. Entered service at: Fort Ord, Calif. Born: 10 January 1949, Providence, R.l. Citation:

“

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sp4c. Baca, Company D, distinguished himself while serving on a recoilless rifle team during a night ambush mission A platoon from his company was sent to investigate the detonation of an automatic ambush device forward of his unit's main position and soon came under intense enemy fire from concealed positions along the trail. Hearing the heavy firing from the platoon position and realizing that his recoilless rifle team could assist the members of the besieged patrol, Sp4c. Baca led his team through the hail of enemy fire to a firing position within the patrol's defensive perimeter. As they prepared to engage the enemy, a fragmentation grenade was thrown into the midst of the patrol. Fully aware of the danger to his comrades, Sp4c. Baca unhesitatingly, and with complete disregard for his own safety, covered the grenade with his steel helmet and fell on it as the grenade exploded, thereby absorbing the lethal fragments and concussion with his body. His gallant action and total disregard for his personal well-being directly saved 8 men from certain serious injury or death. The extraordinary courage and selflessness displayed by Sp4c. Baca, at the risk of his life, are in the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

”

^[1]

Medal received from: President Richard M. Nixon, June 15, 1971

[edit] After the war

John Baca survived severe wounds received during the February 10, 1970 ambush.

In 2002, a park was named in his honor in Huntington Beach, California. At the park's dedication, Baca said:

“I am an ordinary citizen who answered my country’s call to duty and performed that duty to the very best of my ability. I pray that so naming this park will serve to instill in the minds of generations to come the idea that the liberty we enjoy must be ever so carefully guarded and when they are called upon to defend those liberties, they do so willingly, as I and so many others already have, in order that this nation, as we know it, shall not perish”.^[2]

In 1990, John Baca returned to Vietnam with a group of ten men from Veterans Vietnam Restoration Project. The group spent eight weeks working along side Vietnamese building a health clinic in a village north of Hanoi.

John Baca rarely publicly speaks about the events of the February 10, 1970 ambush. He prefers to recount an incident that occurred on Christmas day, 1969. Baca was walking ahead of his unit, acting as "point," when he surprised a young North Vietnamese soldier sitting alone on top of a bunker in the jungle. Baca saw that the soldier could not reach his rifle quickly and not wanting to shoot him, yelled in Vietnamese for him to surrender. Not only was he able to take his "Christmas gift" alive and unharmed, the young man, twenty years later, was among Vietnamese that Baca worked with building the clinic in 1990.^[3]

John Baca remains active in social causes, particularly related to Vietnam veterans issues and the plight of the homeless.

Two other Medal of Honor recipients, Allen J. Lynch (1967) and Rodney J. Evans (KIA 1969) served in Company D, 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division.