Medal of Honor recipient and Legionnaire Dwight Birdwell reminds veterans to be proud of their service, no matter their task.
Medal of Honor recipient Dwight Birdwell recalled being at the White House in July of 2022 to receive the nation’s highest award for valor. When President Biden was reading the citation before signing it, Birdwell said that Biden asked, “Are you crazy?” After reading further, “He said, ‘Absolutely, you are crazy.’ I told him at that point I’ve heard that before,” said Birdwell, who told delegates to the general session of The American Legion’s national convention in Tampa, Fla., on Aug. 26, that they were sitting before someone who has “been proclaimed or declared to be crazy by the president of the United States” to an applause.
Birdwell received the Medal of Honor for his actions on Jan. 31, 1968, while serving with U.S. Army C Troop, 3d Squadron, 4th Cavalry, 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam when the Tan Son Nhut Airbase came under enemy fire. While wounded in the face, neck, chest, and arms and refusing to be medically evacuated, Birdwell’s citation reads, in part, “Specialist Five Birdwell, under enemy fire, rallied fellow soldiers to advance toward the front of the armored column where they set up a defensive position by a large tree. From this position, he and the other soldiers engaged the enemy with M-16 fire and grenades. As the enemy fire lessened, Specialist Five Birdwell gathered ammunition from disabled vehicles and helped wounded soldiers move to safer positions. His leadership and tenacity under fire inspired the other C Troop soldiers to continue fighting against the superior enemy force, and directly contributed to the enemy's ultimate defeat.”
In receiving the Medal of Honor, “I did so with the thought that it wasn’t really for me, I’m just a custodian; it appropriately belongs to the men who did not make it that day who were KIA, the men seriously wounded and their families,” Birdwell said. But he once heard someone say that they served with and knew heroes and “that description describes me.”
Birdwell recently became a member of The American Legion, joining Post 30 in Lincolnton, N.C. “So I’m one of you now,” he said to an applause. His father, a World War I veteran, was “a proud, proud member of The American Legion,” Birdwell added, who grew up reading The American Legion Magazine. “They were a part of my informative years.”
He was raised on a Cherokee reservation, where he learned that the Plains Tribe “emphasized that all the warriors performed an important job. Even the person who held the horses during dismounted raids,” he said.
He shared the story of a friend whom he served alongside with in Vietnam who does not like to attend veteran events because to him, his role in keeping radios operating wasn’t an important task. Birdwell tells him what he learned from the Plains Tribe, that “every job in the military is important. No matter what you do, whether you were on the line or in base camp performing a function, it was important. So be proud of your service.
“And the families of those who served, be proud of your servicemember. There’s nothing like serving the United States of America.”
- Convention