Douglas E Dickey
Douglas was born on the 24th of December, 1946, in Greenville, Ohio, and he grew up on a farm in Rossburg. In school, he played football and sang in chorus and when he didn’t make the basketball team, he volunteered to be the team’s water and towel boy. He graduated high school in 1965 and by the end of the year, Douglas enlisted in the US Marine Corps Reserve, becoming active duty the following Spring. Once he was done with training at Camp Pendleton, he was promoted to Private First Class and was deployed to Vietnam, where he joined Company B, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 3rd Marine Division. It was his actions on the 26th of March, 1967 that would earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. While participating in Operation Beacon Hill 1, the 2d Platoon was engaged in a fierce battle with the Viet Cong at close-range in dense jungle foliage. Pfc. Dickey had come forward to replace a radio operator who had been wounded in this intense action and was being treated by a medical corpsman. Suddenly an enemy grenade landed in the midst of a group of marines, which included the wounded radio operator who was immobilized. Fully realizing the inevitable result of his actions, Pfc. Dickey, in a final valiant act, quickly and unhesitatingly threw himself upon the deadly grenade, absorbing with his body the full and complete force of the explosion. Pfc. Dickey's personal heroism, extraordinary valor and selfless courage saved a number of his comrades from certain injury and possible death at the cost of his life. His actions reflected great credit upon himself, the Marine Corps, and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
When Douglas’s family received his Medal of Honor on the 16th of April, 1968 from the Secretary of the Navy in a ceremony at the Marine Barracks in Washington DC, few people outside of those that he saved and his family would learn about his actions. In 2004, Lieutenant Colonel (retired) John Lang began looking for more information about Douglas and was able to speak to his mother, read letters that were sent home, and conduct over 50 interviews. John’s work took fourteen years and is now known as the most detailed account of Operation Beacon Hill. “A Final Valiant Act: The Story of Doug Dickey, Medal of Honor” was published in April of 2020 and tells the stories from the men that witnessed Douglas’s act that Easter Day in 1967. Douglas Eugene Dickey was 20 years old when he died and he is buried in the Brock Cemetery in Greenville, Ohio, and his name appears on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall: Panel 17E, Line 50.
