Robert C. Burke

He attacked fortified positions to save the wounded Marines.

Robert Charles Burke enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve while attending Monticello High School in March 1967 and entered the regular Marine Corps that May. He trained in California as a motor vehicle mechanic before joining Company I, 3rd Battalion, 27th Marines in Vietnam in February 1968.

Burke earned the Medal of Honor at Le Nam 1 in Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam, on May 17, 1968. A private first class and machine gunner in Company I, 3rd Battalion, 27th Marines, 1st Marine Division, he attacked fortified positions that had halted the company.

Burke’s suppressive fire allowed Marines to advance and move casualties to safety. When his gun malfunctioned, he continued with a rifle and grenades, then resumed using the repaired machine gun. He was mortally wounded while firing from an exposed position.

Born in Monticello, Illinois, on November 7, 1949, Burke received the medal posthumously. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew presented it to his family on April 20, 1970. He is buried at Monticello Cemetery.

Medal of Honor citation

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty for service as a machine gunner with Company I. While on Operation Allen Brook, Company I was approaching a dry river bed with a heavily wooded treeline that borders the hamlet of Le Nam (1), when they suddenly came under intense mortar, rocket-propelled-grenade, automatic-weapons, and small-arms fire from a large, well-concealed enemy force which halted the company's advance and wounded several marines. Realizing that key points of resistance had to be eliminated to allow the units to advance and casualties to be evacuated, Pfc. Burke, without hesitation, seized his machine gun and launched a series of one-man assaults against the fortified emplacements. As he aggressively maneuvered to the edge of the steep river bank, he delivered accurate suppressive fire upon several enemy bunkers, which enabled his comrades to advance and move the wounded marines to positions of relative safety. As he continued his combative actions, he located an opposing automatic-weapons emplacement and poured intense fire into the position, killing three North Vietnamese soldiers as they attempted to flee. Pfc. Burke then fearlessly moved from one position to another, quelling the hostile fire until his weapon malfunctioned. Obtaining a casualty's rifle and hand grenades, he advanced further into the midst of the enemy fire in an assault against another pocket of resistance, killing two more of the enemy. Observing that a fellow marine had cleared his malfunctioning machine gun, he grasped his weapon and moved into a dangerously exposed area and saturated the hostile treeline until he fell mortally wounded. Pfc. Burke's gallant actions upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.