Remarks Upon Presenting the Medal of Honor Posthumously to Staff Sgt. Peter S. Connor, USMC
Mrs. Connor and members of the Connor family, Secretary Nitze, Members of the Cabinet, Members of Congress, distinguished businessmen, distinguished labor leaders, ladies and gentlemen:
Once again we meet to honor the memory and the name of a very brave man.
For his family, and for his comrades in arms, his memory is imperishably alive.
For his fellow Americans, his name has joined those who also gave the highest measure of manhood to the land that they love; who gave their lives in acts of selfless courage, so that others might live.
Peter Connor, Staff Sergeant of the United States Marine Corps, was mortally wounded in Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam, on February 25 of last year.
He was the platoon sergeant of a unit that was moving forward under enemy fire. Preparing to charge an enemy emplacement with a grenade, he discovered that it was defective. It would explode in a matter of seconds--long before he could get close enough to use it on the target.
His men were dispersed all about him. If he threw the grenade in any direction, it would kill or wound some of his men.
He had only a moment to make a decision. But in that moment, the values of centuries and the training of years came to bear upon him.
He held the grenade against his own body. He absorbed its terrible violence in himself. He spared the lives of all of his men. Eleven days later he died of his wounds. Who among us would have done the same?
We say, and we believe, that the lives of many outweigh one life. That is the teaching of the prophets and the philosophers; it is at the heart of our democratic faith and of our religion. But at the moment of testing, when the decision between life and death rests in the palm of the hand, who can say with confidence that he would hear that teaching and he would respond to that faith?
There are men in Vietnam at this hour who do say it and who can say it. Like Peter Connor, they have accepted the primacy of those ancient values. Selfless valor has become as much a part of them as the blood and bone of which they are made. They are prepared to sacrifice, not because they love life any less than the rest of us do, but because they treasure, even more, what gives it meaning--the power to rise above self for their brothers' sake.
Sergeant Connor died at a time of testing, not only for himself, but for the land that he knew and loved. Thousands of miles away from the battlefield on which he fell, his countrymen debate the course of the war he fought in.
Many of them are genuinely concerned to find the wisest course that their country can take. Some of them have never learned, or have forgotten, the lessons of this century:
--that no nation or people can be secure when aggression is ignored;
--that those who can resist aggression bear the heaviest responsibility to resist it;
--that resistance cannot be made without pain and without loss and without great sacrifice;
--but that the cost of ignoring the aggressor is to the integrity--and to the soul--of a whole people.
The debate will go on, so long as we are a democracy and so long as men like Peter Connor shoulder their packs and face, not hostile placards and debating points, but the bullets and the mortar shells of marching aggressive armies. The debate will go on, and it will have its price. It is a price our democracy must be prepared to pay, and that the angriest voices of dissent should be prepared to acknowledge.
We give thanks for our freedom--and we give thanks for all of the brave and selfless men who have preserved that freedom for us for two centuries or more.
To them be honor and praise. To us is the responsibility for redeeming their sacrifice. And though the bravery of Peter Connor is beyond most of us, it was built on a faith that we share with him; and we can see, in his example, something of what we might be ourselves.
Mrs. Connor, in sorrow, and in pride, I present this Nation's highest award for valor. It is awarded posthumously, in the name of the Congress of the United States, to your gallant husband--Staff Sergeant Peter S. Connor, of the United States Marines. Secretary Nitze will now read the citation.
[Text of citation read by Paul H. Nitze, Secretary of the Navy]
The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor posthumously to
STAFF SERGEANT PETER S. CONNOR UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
for service as set forth in the following
CITATION:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against enemy Viet Cong forces at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Platoon Sergeant of the Third Platoon, Company F, Second Battalion, Third Marines, First Marine Division (Reinforced), Fleet Marine Force, in Quang Ngai Province, Republic of Vietnam on 25 February 1966.
Leading his platoon on a search and destroy operation in an area made particularly hazardous by extensive cave and tunnel complexes, Sergeant Connor maneuvered his unit aggressively forward under intermittent enemy small-arms fire. Exhibiting particular alertness and keen observation, he spotted an enemy spider hole emplacement approximately fifteen meters to his front. He pulled the pin from a fragmentation grenade intending to charge the hole boldly and drop the missile into its depths. Upon pulling the pin he realized that the firing mechanism was faulty, and that even as he held the safety device firmly in place, the fuse charge was already activated. With only precious seconds to decide, he further realized that he could not cover the distance to the small opening of the spider hole in sufficient time, and that to hurl the deadly bomb in any direction would result in death or injury to some of his comrades tactically deployed near him. Manifesting extraordinary gallantry and with utter disregard for his personal safety, he chose to hold the grenade against his own body in order to absorb the terrific explosion and spare his comrades.
His act of extreme valor and selflessness in the face of virtually certain death, although leaving him mortally wounded, spared many of his fellow Marines from death or injury. His gallant action in giving his life in the cause of freedom reflects the highest credit upon the Marine Corps and the Armed Forces of the United States.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
Note: The President spoke at 12:51 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White House. In his opening words he referred to Mrs. Peter S. Connor of Oceanside, Calif., who accepted the Medal of Honor posthumously awarded to her husband, and to Secretary of the Navy Paul H. Nitze. Mrs. Connor was accompanied by her daughter, Cecilia, and Sergeant Connor's mother, Mrs. Harold E. Connor of South Orange, N.J., along with other members of the family.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks Upon Presenting the Medal of Honor Posthumously to Staff Sgt. Peter S. Connor, USMC Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/237444