Terrence C. Graves

He stayed with the wounded Marine under deadly enemy gunfire

Terrence Collinson Graves was born at Corpus Christi, Texas, on 6 July 1945 and grew up in New York. He graduated from Edmeston Central High School in 1963. His youth included leadership in the Boy Scouts and the Methodist Youth Fellowship, and he continued that interest in responsibility while studying at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. As a student he commanded his Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps battalion. He graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in April 1967 and received a commission as a Marine second lieutenant.

Graves completed The Basic School at Quantico in November 1967 and reached Vietnam the following month. He became a platoon commander in the 3rd Force Reconnaissance Company, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division. His combat experience was consequently brief before the patrol that cost his life.

On 16 February 1968 his eight-man reconnaissance patrol encountered enemy troops in Quang Tri Province. Graves deployed his men, directed their fire and, when heavier enemy fire caused casualties, called for artillery, helicopter gunships and air support. He moved out to check the earlier fighting, attacked surviving enemy troops and then tried to bring the patrol to an extraction point.

Wounded himself, he refused treatment while organizing another landing site. He guided a helicopter in and put men aboard while remaining exposed. When he realized that a casualty had been left behind, he sent the aircraft away and stayed with another Marine to protect the wounded man. Ammunition was running short. A second helicopter eventually arrived, but intense fire struck it and it crashed after takeoff, killing those aboard.

Graves was twenty-two. Vice President Spiro Agnew presented his posthumous Medal of Honor to his family at the White House on 2 December 1969. His other recognition included the Purple Heart and a Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Silver Star. He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Hamilton, New York, and Miami University preserves his Medal of Honor.

Medal of Honor citation (excerpt)

“He gallantly gave his life for his country.”

Official citation, U.S. Army transcription: https://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/citations25.html