Military Makes Amends : Vietnam Vet Is Belatedly Awarded Medal for Valor

Nearly 30 years after earning a medal for bravery in deadly artillery duels with North Vietnamese gunners, Marvin McDonald was finally honored Thursday and reunited with two former commanders.

McDonald, a resident of Madera, was awarded the Navy Achievement Medal with a combat “V” for valor in a ceremony witnessed by dozens of young Marines and sailors, most of whom were not yet born when he was serving in Vietnam with the Marine Corps in 1968.

“I had no idea something like this would ever happen,” said McDonald. “I’m going to take it home, put it in a frame, look at it and see what a 19-year-old kid accomplished many years ago.”

The 49-year-old McDonald was recognized for numerous contributions to his unit, K Battery, 4th Battalion, 12th Regiment. The battery fired six self-propelled, 155-millimeter howitzers in support of Marine infantry units along the Demilitarized Zone and was itself under constant attack by enemy gunners.

Although McDonald was told in 1969 that he had been awarded the medal, he was no longer on active duty and a ceremony was never held. Earlier this year, Al Rivera, a retired master sergeant and McDonald’s section leader in Vietnam, learned about the oversight during a unit reunion and arranged Thursday’s ceremony.

The battery’s commander, retired Marine Col. Jack B. Zimmermann, flew from Houston to pin the medal on McDonald, who was a lance corporal when he was forced to leave Vietnam in December 1968 because his father was dying of cancer. Military regulations at the time prohibited the Marine Corps from keeping McDonald--as a sole surviving son--in a combat zone.

On Thursday, McDonald recalled the mixed emotions he felt upon learning that he was returning home after nine months in Vietnam and burying his father a month later.

“I didn’t know I was coming home. I didn’t want to leave, but my father was dying,” McDonald said. “We were a real tight group. It’s hard to explain unless you’ve been in combat. It was like leaving your family or part of you behind. After I was home, I constantly thought about who made it back and who didn’t.”

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McDonald’s wife, Andi, described him as a “very private and low-key person” and said the ceremony had added meaning for him because his stepson, Lance Cpl. Noah Spicer, 22, was among the Marines who witnessed the pinning of the medal.

Before Thursday’s ceremony, McDonald had not seen Rivera or Zimmermann since leaving Vietnam.

Rivera talked about the last image he had of McDonald as he was being driven away to Dong Ha for his trip home. He remembered a dirty McDonald sitting in the back of a 2 1/2-ton truck, staring at his fellow Marines. “He gave the battery a salute, a slow salute. I’ll never forget that,” Rivera said.

McDonald’s battery and other Marine batteries along the Demilitarized Zone were under constant fire from enemy gun crews, whose 152-millimeter guns had a longer range. The North Vietnamese army controlled much of the high ground around the area known as Leatherneck Square, and its forward observers were able to call in accurate fire on U.S. positions.

“It was frustrating for us,” Zimmermann said. “Most of the time, they were out of range of our guns. It only got more frustrating in October 1968, when we were ordered not to fire across the DMZ into North Vietnam, even though that’s where they had many of their guns.”