American Valor

Four Medal of Honor winners share their stories

Out of the 3,440 recipients of the esteemed Medal of Honor, more than half of which have been awarded posthumously, only 137 are still living. Drew Dix, Wesley Fox, Jack Jacobs and Leo Thorsness are four such war heroes, all of whom share their remarkable stories during American Valor, airing in honor of Memorial Day on Sunday, May 29 at 10 p.m. on TV12. Below, read about the brave actions that earned each the military's highest award, stories from their time in the service and reflective quotes.

Drew Dix

"You go to war for your country, because your country sends you. But when it comes right down to it, when you make sacrifices, you make them for your buddy on the left and the buddy on the right. Because they're doing the same for you."

Drew Dix was a staff sergeant in the Army, attached to IV Corps, the Military Assistance Command, when he received the Medal of Honor for service in Chau Doc Province, Vietnam, on January 31 and February 1, 1968.

Two heavily armed Viet Cong battalions attacked the provincial capital, Chau Phu. Dix, with a patrol of Vietnamese soldiers, was called to assist in the defense of the city. He organized relief forces which, under heavy fire, rescued a nurse and other civilians trapped in the city. The following day, Dix assembled a 20-man force and braved intense enemy fire to clear the Viet Cong out of a hotel, theater and other adjacent buildings in the city. Vietnamese soldiers were so inspired by his heroism that they rallied and resumed fighting the Viet Cong. Dix captured 20 prisoners, including a high-ranking Viet Cong official. He liberated the home of the deputy province chief and rescued his family.

Dix was the first enlisted man in Special Forces to have been awarded the Medal of Honor. He received a direct commission to first lieutenant and retired with the rank of major after serving 20 years in the Army, many of those in unconventional warfare assignments.

Following retirement from the Army, Dix continued to work in support of government-sponsored programs, and he owned and operated an air service in the Alaskan interior. He has worked as a consultant in both the private and public sectors in the areas of security and special operations. His 2000 autobiography, The Rescue of River City, tells the story of his experience as a counterterrorism expert in the Army. In September 2002, as Alaska's deputy commissioner for homeland security, he was chosen to head the state's Task Force on Homeland Security.

Wesley Fox

"I'll never forget the words from that recruiting officer, 'Most of the paychecks that we receive as Marines would not be justified by the work that we would do but there'll come that time that your countrymen cannot pay you enough for what you would have done for them.'"

Wesley Fox received the Medal of Honor for his heroism and leadership in Vietnam on February 22, 1969. Fox, who dedicated 43 years of his life to service in the uniform of the U.S. Marine Corps, retired only after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 62. By that time, he had earned the unique distinction of working his way through each Marine Corps rank, from private to colonel.

As a young corporal, Fox served in Korea, where he was wounded in action. During the following 16 years, he worked his way through all of the enlisted ranks from the lowest private to first sergeant. While many servicemen would relish the accomplishment of rising through each of the enlisted ranks and choose to sit out a few more years to retirement, Fox used that opportunity to start all over. From second lieutenant he began working his way up through the ranks of a Marine Corps officer, serving in his second war, this time in Vietnam, as a first lieutenant in command of a company in the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines (1/9). The men of 1/9 called themselves the Walking Dead, a nickname that proved all too realistic during one of the Marine Corps' last major offensives of the Vietnam War. Fox was serving his second tour of duty in his second war when he led the Walking Dead of his company during Operation Dewey Canyon.

During the course of the three-month operation, Fox's Alpha Company suffered 75 percent casualties, the company commander among them. Despite his wounds, Fox continued to lead his Marines in battle, and was subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor. His award was presented to him at the White House in 1971 by President Richard M. Nixon. By the time he received the medal, Fox had risen to the rank of captain.

Col. Fox, USMC (Ret.) recently finished eight years as the deputy commandant with Corps Cadets at Virginia Tech.

Jack Jacobs

"To receive the Medal of Honor, you have to do something, somebody has to see you doing it, he has to be able to write, and he has to not hate you."

Col. Jack Jacobs, who entered military service through Rutgers ROTC, earned the Medal of Honor in 1969 for exceptional heroism on the battlefields of Vietnam. He also holds three Bronze Stars and two Silver Stars.

Jacobs was an advisor to a Vietnamese infantry battalion when it came under a devastating fire that disabled the commander. Although bleeding from severe head wounds, 1st Lt. Jacobs took command, withdrew the unit to safety, and returned again and again under intense fire to rescue the wounded and perform life-saving first aid. He saved the lives of a U.S. advisor and 13 allied soldiers.

Jacobs served on the faculty of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the National War College in Washington, D.C. After retirement, he founded and was chief operating officer of Auto Finance Group. As a managing director of Bankers Trust Co., he led Global Investment Management to $2.2 billion in assets and later co-founded a similar business for Lehman Brothers. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a director of the Medal of Honor Foundation. He is also a military analyst for NBC/MSNBC. Jacobs is a Loyal Son of Rutgers and is a recipient of the Rutgers Medal.

Jacobs is married, has a grown daughter and son, and lives in Millington, NJ.

Leo Thorsness

"I received the Medal of Honor for the same reason most everybody does, and that's trying to rescue somebody. But there are also a lot of people you know that deserved (the Medal) that no one saw what they did, or they didn't come home. And so, really, I'm a guardian of this. And it represents everybody I served with."

Leo Thorsness was awarded the Medal of Honor for acts of heroism while piloting an F-105 aircraft on a surface-to-air suppression mission over North Vietnam on April 19, 1967. During the mission, his wingman was shot down. Thorsness circled the area, keeping the abandoned crewmembers and their parachutes in sight so as to relay their position to the Search and Rescue Center. When a MiG-17 was sighted in the area, Thorsness attacked and destroyed the enemy fighter.

Low on fuel, Thorsness was forced to leave the area and seek a tanker, but upon learning that two rescue helicopters circling the area of the downed pilots were under threat of enemy aircraft, he returned to the scene through surface-to-air missiles and antiaircraft defenses. At the site, he encountered four enemy aircraft, proceeded to damage one and drive off the remainder. Upon his next attempt at refueling, he learned that another U.S. aircraft in the area was critically low on fuel and that the crew would have to abandon the plane unless they had immediate access to the tanker, Thorsness diverted his aircraft to a forward operating base so that the other one could refuel instead.

On April 30, 1967, while flying his 93rd mission -- just seven missions shy of completing his tour of duty -- Thorsness was shot down over North Vietnam. He and his crewman were captured and, as prisoners of war, joined the two airmen who Thorsness had directed rescue efforts for 11 days earlier. He remained a prisoner of war until 1973.

Thorsness received the Medal of Honor while in captivity. The announcement was kept secret so that the Viet Cong could not use the information against him. It was one of many awards and decorations Thorsness received when he returned home. After several surgeries, necessitated by his years as a POW, he retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1973 as a colonel.

A native of Minnesota, Thorsness received his bachelor's degree from the University of Omaha, and his master's degree from the University of Southern California. He served 23 years in the U.S. Air Force, at duty stations including Turner Air Force Base in Albany, Georgia; Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina; Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany; Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada; and Takhli Air Base in Thailand.

Thorsness served as technical advisor on American Valor, a role he previously filled on the production of the motion picture The Hanoi Hilton. He presently serves on the board of directors and is vice chairman of the Medal of Honor Foundation. From 1979 to 1985, Thorsness was director of civic affairs for Litton Industries in Beverly Hills, California. He was a Washington state senator from 1988 to 1992. Now retired, Thorsness lives with his wife of 50 years in Arizona.