David Herbert McNerney

Wounded, He Took Command Under Enemy Fire

David Herbert McNerney was born on June 2, 1931, in Lowell, Massachusetts. His family later moved to the Houston, Texas, area, where he spent much of his youth. After finishing high school, he began what would become a two-decade military career by joining the United States Navy in 1949. Following the example of his older brother Edward, McNerney entered service at a time when tensions in Asia were rapidly moving toward war.

McNerney served two tours in Korea while in the Navy before being discharged in 1952. After a brief period in college, he returned to military life, this time enlisting in the United States Army. The change of service placed him on the path toward a career in ground combat leadership. Over the years he developed into an experienced noncommissioned officer, eventually attaining the rank of First Sergeant. His later career included four tours in Vietnam between 1962 and 1969, where he served both as an adviser and as the senior enlisted leader of an infantry company.

By March 1967, McNerney was First Sergeant of Company A, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. On March 22, his company was operating near Polei Doc in the Republic of Vietnam when it came under a major attack by a North Vietnamese Army battalion. The fighting immediately placed the unit under extraordinary pressure, and McNerney moved toward the area where the contact was most intense to help establish and strengthen the defensive perimeter.

During the battle, he encountered enemy soldiers at close range and fought them while continuing to organize the defense. A grenade explosion knocked him from his feet and painfully wounded him, but he remained in action. When an enemy machine-gun position pinned down five American soldiers outside the defensive line, McNerney attacked and destroyed the position despite his injury. His actions were not limited to personal combat; the situation soon demanded that he take responsibility for the survival of the entire company.

After learning that his company commander and the artillery forward observer had been killed, McNerney assumed command. With the defensive position under continuing pressure, he directed supporting artillery extremely close to the American perimeter to help break the enemy attacks. When the company exhausted the smoke grenades being used to identify its location to friendly aircraft, he moved into an exposed clearing so the aircraft could locate the position. He then climbed a tree and secured an identification panel high in its branches, making the company's location more visible from the air while exposing himself to hostile fire.

McNerney continued moving among the defenders, reorganizing positions, encouraging the men, and checking the wounded. As the intensity of the enemy assault began to decrease, the company urgently needed a landing zone so helicopters could evacuate its casualties. McNerney joined the effort to clear one. When explosives were required to remove large trees, he crawled outside the relative protection of the perimeter and retrieved demolition material from abandoned equipment. He returned through enemy fire with the explosives needed to complete the landing area. Although wounded himself, he refused medical evacuation and remained with Company A until a new commander arrived the following day.

The battle at Polei Doc became the defining action of his military life. For his leadership, courage, and repeated exposure to enemy fire while wounded, McNerney received the Medal of Honor. President Lyndon B. Johnson presented the decoration to him at the White House on September 19, 1968. The Medal of Honor recognized not a single isolated act, but a sustained series of actions in which he fought the enemy, assumed command after key leaders were lost, coordinated defensive fire, helped identify the unit's position for supporting aircraft, cared for his soldiers, and remained on the battlefield despite his own wound.

His other recognized decorations reflected a career that extended well beyond the single day for which he received the nation's highest military award. McNerney also received the Bronze Star Medal and the Army Commendation Medal. He was awarded the Purple Heart with an oak-leaf cluster, representing a subsequent award of the decoration for wounds received in action. These honors accompanied a military career that included combat service in both Korea and Vietnam and years of responsibility as an Army noncommissioned officer.

Receiving the Medal of Honor did not end McNerney's willingness to serve in Vietnam. He volunteered for another deployment and served with Company B, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. He ultimately retired from military service in December 1969 after more than twenty years of combined Navy and Army service. His career had taken him from a young sailor during the Korean War to an experienced Army First Sergeant whose battlefield leadership had earned the Medal of Honor.

After leaving the military, McNerney returned to the Houston area and began a civilian career as a customs agent. He remained closely connected to the military community and to veterans of the 4th Infantry Division. Over the years he attended division gatherings, spoke to veterans' organizations, students, Junior ROTC cadets, and civic groups, and became known among former soldiers not simply as a Medal of Honor recipient but as the First Sergeant who had stayed with his men when the company was in danger of being overwhelmed.

His connection to Company A endured for the rest of his life. Veterans who had served with him continued to credit his leadership with helping the company survive the battle at Polei Doc. McNerney himself was remembered for approaching the Medal of Honor with humility rather than using it for personal status. He remained involved with the 4th Infantry Division community long after leaving active service, preserving the bond formed with the soldiers he had led in Vietnam.

David Herbert McNerney died on October 10, 2010, in Houston, Texas, at the age of seventy-nine after battling lung cancer. He was laid to rest at Houston National Cemetery. His legacy continued after his death: in accordance with his wishes, his Medal of Honor was returned to the 4th Infantry Division, linking the decoration permanently with the soldiers and unit whose survival had defined the action for which it was awarded.

McNerney's military life stretched from the Korean War through some of the most difficult years of the Vietnam War, but March 22, 1967, remains its defining moment. Wounded and under intense enemy fire, he did not withdraw. When leaders were lost, he took command. When soldiers were pinned down, he attacked the position threatening them. When aircraft needed to find his company, he exposed himself to mark its location. When the wounded needed evacuation, he helped create the landing zone. And when offered evacuation for his own injury, he remained with his men until another commander arrived. That sustained leadership under fire transformed an experienced First Sergeant into one of the most distinguished soldiers of the Vietnam War.