The jungle in Pleiku Province, Vietnam is a long way from Riverhead. And a half-century is a long time. A war ends. New ones begin. More soldiers are killed. People who knew them pass away. Memories fade.
Soon enough, the memory of a young man who grew up and lived in Riverhead, a solider who made the decision to sacrifice his own life so that others might live, won’t consist of the personal recollections of the people who knew him as a boy, or prayed with him in church, or served with him in the Army. Generations pass and the memories recorded as written history — even the history of such an extraordinary life as Garfield McConnell Langhorn Jr.’s — really don’t convey the essence of the person.
Fortunately, there is still an opportunity to speak to the family, friends and fellow soldiers who knew, loved and served with Riverhead’s Medal of Honor recipient — people who can fill in the gaps in the “official” biography.
‘Somebody’s got to care’
Late in the afternoon on Jan. 15, 1969, a U.S. Army Cobra helicopter carrying two crew crashed on the hillside in the jungle just west of the city of Pleiku. Its pilot Sterling Cox and gunner Jim Petteys were attempting to destroy enemy boats hidden on the shore. Their helicopter grazed the treetops and then exploded, according to the account given by Chief Warrant Officer Bob Mitchell, who was a crew member of another helicopter on the mission, and an eyewitness. He believed they died instantly.
An infantry platoon — known as the Blues — was sent to the site to either save the Cobra’s crew if they were still alive or retrieve their bodies. The Blues recovered the bodies of the two men, but as nightfall approached, found they’d been ambushed by the Viet Cong.
Langhorn was the Blues’ radio man and about the fourth man from the front line. As the platoon’s point men were fired upon and injured, he called for help on the 24-pound box he lugged through the jungle — while returning enemy fire. The Viet Cong closed in from behind and the American soldiers were trapped — and greatly outnumbered. Darkness fell.
The ambushed platoon established a perimeter and engaged in a “severe fire fight lasting approximately an hour and a half” that “inflicted numerous casualties from automatic weapons and grenades,” PFC Gus Kaplan said in a statement to the Army.
“…Private First Class Garfield Langhorn and I were lying next to [the wounded] returning fire,” Kaplan said. “Suddenly a grenade landed about a foot in front of us. Private First Class Langhorn immediately lunged on top of the grenade and smothered the explosion with his body. It was a split second decision and Private First Class Langhorn’s ultimately unselfish act preserved the platoon leader’s, my own, and the lifes [sic] of those already wounded,” Kaplan wrote.
Platoon commander First Lt. Charles Campbell recounted the same set of facts for the Army record.
Pastor Jerry Stover, who became friends with Langhorn in Vietnam, recalls the lieutenant’s personal account of the events that night.
Campbell was on the ground next to Langhorn when a grenade landed about a foot in front of them.
“Somebody’s got to care,” Langhorn said before he lunged for the grenade. He scooped it up under his body, which absorbed the blast — saving Campbell, Kaplan and the wounded men lying a few feet away. Those were his last words.
Langhorn and Stover arrived in Vietnam within a few days of each other. Stover, from Georgia, was assigned to an assault helicopter unit. Langhorn was with the infantry platoon.
“That’s really where we got to know each other,” Stover, now 70, recalled.
They had a lot in common and became friends, he said.
“You get around the guys — you have some who cuss, drink and have camaraderie. I guess it’s normal for military life,” he said.
Both men were devout Baptists.
“I didn’t drink. He didn’t drink. I didn’t cuss. He didn’t cuss,” Stover said. “We’d sit and talk.” Among other things, they spoke of their faith. “It was good for us that we had someone we could talk to about those things,” he said.
Col. Bruce Wilder — who, like Stover, became a pastor after his military service — said he will never forget Langhorn.
“He will be with me on the rest of my journey on this earth,” Wilder said.
Wilder piloted the helicopter that was sent in to rescue Langhorn. But it was too late.
“I live with the fact that I could not get my helicopter down into the area where the rifle platoon was surrounded by a reinforced battalion of the People’s Army of North Vietnam to med evac Garfield to the field hospital in time to save his life,” Wilder said. “The machine gun fire was so intense and they would start firing at us as we lowered into the small opening in the tall trees,” he said.
“Heroes are not naturally born. They are born out of a moment of need and concern of others in a split-second.”
The split-second that would define the life of PFC Garfield Langhorn occurred 50 years ago, on Jan. 15. 1969. For his bravery and self-sacrifice, Langhorn was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Richard Nixon in 1970.
The 50th anniversary of the soldier’s death will be marked Tuesday by a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives by First Congressional District Rep. Lee Zeldin. The remarks will be made at approximately 10 a.m.
Commendations and honors “mean little if we forget to look beyond the decorations and forever remember and honor the actions of the 20-year-old young man who earned them,” Zeldin’s prepared remarks state.
“In saving his fellow soldiers, PFC Langhorn’s life was extinguished too soon, but as President Lincoln continued, ‘we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.’ Today, we must challenge ourselves as Americans to pick up that torch, to embody the bravery, selflessness and commitment to our great country. There is no memorial, no medal and no post office that can bring back PFC Langhorn, but he can live eternally in all of us, in our actions, and in our hearts,” Zeldin’s statement says.
No official ceremonies are planned Tuesday in Riverhead, Langhorn’s home and the site of his grave in the Riverhead Cemetery.
The congressman is making a presentation at 12 noon on Monday, Jan. 21 at the Riverhead Post Office, which was named for Langhorn in 2010, of the flag flown over the Capitol in his memory. Langhorn’s oldest niece, Venetia Lewis, will represent his family. (His mother Mary, now 94, and both of his sisters now live in Virginia.)
“I think it’s important for Riverhead to remember what he did, because he represents the town,” Langhorn’s sister, Yvonne Reid, of Richmond, Virginia said in a phone interview today. “He grew up in Riverhead, graduated from Riverhead High School, worked there for the county before he was drafted. Riverhead should feel proud to celebrate someone who was willing to give his life to save his comrades,” Reid said.
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