MEDAL OF HONOR: Fighting Back the NVA After 4 Days Left Him with Only a Few Choices | Gary Littrell

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"I'm the custodian of the medal, they earned it, I get to wear it for them" that's the words of a hero right there

CSM Gary Littrell was my First Sargent in 1977 when serving with C 1/75th Ranger Battalion. He was tough as nails and one of the finest NCO's that I have ever met in my military career.

Men like this are a dying breed in America today. Soft spoken Relaxed. When he says something he means it. Thank you for your service.

As an Infantryman, Iraq War veteran, I love this man. These are the guys who paved the way for us. They had it tougher and did more with less than we had to.

Csm Littrel, “5,000 enemy against my 500 rangers, I regard this as a fair fight.” Hard af.

I had a similar experience “with the best NCO ever” Master Sergeant Everett Finnel. He had fought in WWII, Korea, and VietNam. I was 18 years old been in the military about 6 months when I first met Master Sergeant Finnel. He was a tough no nonsense NCO who cared for his troops. His actions, that I observed as a young troop, gave me the knowledge of how a leader should be. I drew on the knowledge he passed on to us many time while serving as a fire team leader in Vietnam. Now, he served most of his time when black people were not treated well in the military but he was not bitter. He succeeded in spite of racism and never displayed any bitterness. He took me under his wing, a southern hick with a Deep South accent. HIs direction, the training he gave me saved my life many times over. The best thing he did for me was give me a life long desire to be good to everyone and never judge a person by what they look like but by their deeds. Master Sergeant Finnel a true American and hero.

This man is proof that nature triumphs nurture. Father abandoned him and mother died shortly after. Lived a very dysfunctional life jumping around from family member to family member. He knew he was a nobody and was determined to become a somebody no matter the cost. Thank you for your character and your service!

Chills ran through my body as I heard him say 44 men out of 475 made it off that hill.....they went 4 days with no food, & annihilated 5000 enemies....barely any water......wow.....the losses were astronomical....

I was a good friend of an Army Ranger named James Shepherd who grew up in Williamstown Kentucky. We worked in an integrated steel mill in SW Ohio. Jimmy was one of the hardest workers on the crew and took him months before he mentioned being a Ranger. As I sit here and listen to Gary's stories, I can imagine Jim being in those hills and fighting for hours. When Jim was born, little did he know that God assigned him longevity. I was proud to work with him for over 35 years.

One of the greatest things I have done in my life was escorting Medal of Honor recipients from the airport to their hotel. This was for the Medal of honor association. I escorted 5 recipients and their families. They were some of the most humblest and respectful people I have ever met. I was ashamed they kept thanking me for my service knowing what amazing acts they had done. I had read the citations for each recipient prior to their escorts. Amazing representatives of their military services.

If you have ever been in close combat you know just how real this situation was. Four days of doing this and to survive is just amazing. So much respect for what he did. I was in Viet Nam during this time assigned to 5th Special Forces period and remember when the sister camp fell. He really lived up to the Ranger Creed.

I was 10 years old watching the Vietnam war and I cried 1974. As the years Years pass- I became a US marine and served as a state trooper and now I am retired . I cried again listening to his story in 2022 as an adult .

When Gary was in the 101st G-3 Training, he and I were the training inspectors for the division. We were pretty care free, called the inspections as we saw them and avoided the politics of division level officers. The G-3 Training staff was a fun, happy go lucky group but the hours were long and often we did not leave until after 6PM. On the day he was notified to report to the CG Office as we were preparing to go home, we were both afraid that someone somewhere had a beef with something he had done or said to another. We never seemed to mince for words. SO I told him that I would wait until he returned to the office after his CG appearance. It was a pretty long wait for me expecting that the worse had happened. Yet when he returned, he was sort of in shock, winded and then sat down across from me as I asked him, "Well how bad is it?" A long pause and he responded, "You won't believe me!" I pushed again and he stated that he had just been notified he was to be presented with the CMH. I responded that this was not a time to be joking, were we both in trouble? But it was a fact, as the video confirmed. But he just went back to work the next day after a long story about what had happened in RVN. Later, he attended a parade in his home town of Henderson KY, which was near by. There the mayor presented Gary with a Kentucky Long Rifle of the mid 1800's era. That is an even better story. He was one of the best NCO's I ever worked with.

Soldier to the bone. Our country is still here because of men like this. Time for the world to grow up.

I'll shed a silent tear for every single one of the 400+ that served, fought and died that day alongside this brave man.

Thank you sir, from a Vietnamese American whose father died fighting along Americans in one of those battles

Only 40 something survived out of 450, that is disastrous. What a courageous story, can’t even imagine it.

As a young man, I loved to sit and listen to stories from older folks, especially veterans. They are our living history and we are their legacy. Thanks for making these stories available to us.

I remember being in Afghanistan in 2012. Had a buddy that worked with an ISR asset. He called me 1 night and said “get over here. It’s gonna be a good one.” An A-Team was on top of a hill. The top of the hill was maybe 2 acres. Thru the TOC, ISR notified the team to mark their perimeter with infrared “fire flies” that there were approx 200-250 taliban coming up the hill 360-degrees. The next thing you see are dozens of flashing infrared lights all around their perimeter. You can hear AC-130 in comms, then they lit the entire area around the camp. Apaches were off a ways waiting for the AC to get done. Then they went in for mop up. No American got even a scratch. There were no bad guy survivors.