Robert F. Stryker

He shielded wounded comrades from a mine blast

Robert Francis Stryker was born in Auburn, New York, on 9 November 1944. He entered the United States Army in 1963. His Vietnam tour began on 29 March 1967. He served as a specialist fourth class in Company C, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division.

On 7 November 1967 near Loc Ninh, his company came under fire during a reconnaissance operation. Stryker fired his grenade launcher at concealed positions, helping his comrades stop an attempt to encircle them. When he saw wounded soldiers exposed to an enemy mine, he threw himself over it as it detonated. The blast killed him two days before his twenty-third birthday.

Vice President Spiro Agnew presented the Medal of Honor to Stryker's family at the White House on 4 November 1969. Stryker is buried at Pine Hill Cemetery in Throopsville, New York. The Army named its Stryker vehicles for him and Stuart S. Stryker, a Medal of Honor recipient from the Second World War.

The Medal of Honor citation credits his sacrifice with “saving the lives of at least six of his fellow soldiers.”