Top Honors go to Draftee Sergeant
Spokane Chronicle, Spokane, Washington 8 Feb 1968 – Washington (UPI) – Army Sgt. Donald R. Long of [Blackfork, Lawrence County, Ohio] Columbus, Ohio, a draftee who gave his life to save eight comrades by throwing himself on a live grenade in Vietnam, today was honored posthumously with the nation’s highest military award.
Army Secretary Stanley R. Reasor was to present the Medal of Honor to Long’s surviving sister, Mrs. Marva Y. Gordon of Columbus. Long’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Herman Long, are dead.
Long, 26-years-old at the time of his act of heroism, was born in Blackfork, Ohio, on August 27, 1939, and graduated from high school there. He was inducted Into the Army at Ashland, Ky., on August 16, 1963. After training at Fort Knox, Ky. and Fort Jackson, S.C., Long went to Hawaii and to Vietnam two years later. Describing his heroic action on June 30, 1968, near Srock Dong, the Army said:
“Sgt. Long was serving as an assistant platoon leader in the 1st Infantry Division when his unit was attacked by a heavily supported Vietcong regiment. He inspired his comrades by repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire while assisting the wounded and by fearlessly standing unprotected to repel the attacker with rifle fire and grenade.
“When an enemy grenade was hurled onto the deck of his armored personnel carrier he immediately shouted a warning and pushed to safety a man who had not heard. Realizing that these actions would not fully protect the exposed crewmen, Sgt, Long threw himself over the grenade to absorb the blast and thereby save the lives of eight of his comrades at the expense of his own life,”
Long was the 15th member of the Army and the 27th man in the Armed Forces to be accorded the Medal of Honor for services in Vietnam.
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