Fifty-five years ago, on September 11, 1970, 22-year-old Sergeant Gary M. Rose was deep behind enemy lines in Laos, serving as the lone Special Forces medic with a company of American Green Berets, South Vietnamese, and Montagnard fighters.
As Operation Tailwind began, Rose and his unit were dropped 40 miles inside hostile territory.
Within minutes, relentless ground fire erupted from entrenched North Vietnamese positions, wounding Americans and indigenous troops before they could even form a defensive perimeter.
Rose raced through a wall of bullets and explosions, stabilizing the wounded and dragging the most severely injured to safer ground. He fought through enemy squads and answered every cry for help, shielding casualties with his own body and returning fire while treating injuries.
The operation turned into a four-day running gunfight, with Rose’s team outnumbered ten to one.
He crawled from foxhole to foxhole, encouraging terrified allied troops, fixing bandages, and directing defenders while ignoring his own wounds—a hole in his arm and foot counted as minor.
On September 12, as the force was surrounded in a fierce enemy assault, Rose ran through open ground under machine gun and rocket fire to save a wounded Montagnard. He treated him while enemy rounds cracked the air only meters away, then dragged the man back with one hand while firing his weapon with the other.
Over the course of the battle, Rose treated up to seventy wounded and spent sleepless hours digging trenches, improvising medical gear, and giving hope amid the chaos.
When the company set up a perimeter for helicopter extraction and enemy troops assaulted from all sides, Rose loaded the dead and wounded onto the helicopters, repeatedly exposing himself to direct fire, and kept working as bullets and mortars rained down.
The last extraction helicopter lifted off, was hit by anti-aircraft fire, and crashed miles away. Rose was thrown clear but crawled back into the wreckage, pulling injured men free and giving aid as the burning aircraft threatened to explode. Only after all others were cared for did he accept help for his own wounds.
Operation Tailwind disrupted North Vietnamese operations and forced thousands of enemy troops to respond. Rose’s actions saved countless lives—every American who deployed survived, and only three Montagnard allies were killed.
Gary M. Rose survived the war and made a lifelong career in the Army. He was awarded the Medal of Honor forty-seven years later, on October 23, 2017, at the White House.
He is still with us.