Maximo Yabes

He shielded fellow soldiers and silenced an enemy gun

Maximo Yabes was born at Lodi, California, on 29 January 1932 and grew up in Oakridge, Oregon. He left high school and entered the Army in 1950. During seventeen years of service he became an experienced infantry noncommissioned officer, serving in Korea before his deployment to Vietnam. His Vietnam tour began on 16 April 1966. By February 1967 he was first sergeant of Company A, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division.

His company was protecting engineers engaged in clearing vegetation near Phu Hoa Dong. Before dawn on 26 February 1967, heavy mortar and automatic weapons fire preceded an assault against three sides of its position. Enemy troops penetrated the wire and threatened the company command bunker.

When grenades landed inside, Yabes warned the occupants and shielded them with his body. Although fragments wounded him, he stayed to cover their escape to another position. He then crossed approximately fifty metres of exposed ground to a second bunker, took a grenade launcher from a fallen soldier and fired into the attackers at close range. His fire stopped another penetration of the perimeter.

Seeing two wounded men lying in the open, he moved them to safety and resumed firing. An enemy machine gun that had been established inside the perimeter still endangered the defenders. Yabes charged across open ground, killed its crew and destroyed the weapon. He was mortally wounded during the assault. His leadership helped his company hold its position and saved fellow soldiers.

Yabes was buried in Fort Logan National Cemetery, Colorado. In October 1968 Secretary of the Army Stanley Resor presented his posthumous Medal of Honor to his wife and children at the Pentagon. His Oregon hometown and later Army memorials preserve his connection with the communities in which he grew up and served.