Roger H.C. Donlon, the first recipient of the Medal of Honor for the Vietnam War, passed away January 25, 2024, in Leavenworth, Kansas at the age of 89 after a 12-year battle with Agent Orange Parkinson’s disease.
According to an obituary, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented Donlon with the Medal of Honor in the East Ballroom of the White House in Washington, DC on December 5, 1964, for his actions near Nam Dong, the Republic of Vietnam, on July 6, 1964.
Donlon was born in Saugerties on January 30, 1934 the eighth of ten children born to Paul A. and Marion (Howard) Donlon of Saugerties. He grew up wanting to serve his country. He attended St. Mary’s Elementary School and graduated from Saugerties High School in 1952. He attended the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University for one year. Donlon then enlisted in the US Air Force from December 1953 to July 1955, after which he was admitted to the US Military Academy at West Point. He left the Military Academy in 1957 but enlisted in the US Army the next year. After graduating from Officer Candidate School at Fort Moore (then Fort Benning), Georgia, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He earned the “Green Beret” upon completion of the US Army Special Warfare School at Fort Liberty (then Fort Bragg), North Carolina. He retired as a Colonel in 1988.
On July 6, 1964, then Captain Donlon and his Special Forces Team A-726, along with 60 Chinese Nungs, defended Camp Nam Dong, Vietnam when they were attacked by a force of 900 enemy troops. It was the first battle of the Vietnam War where the Regular North Vietnamese Army joined forces with the Viet Cong from the south to try to overrun an American Outpost. For his actions at Nam Dong, Donlon became the first American Soldier to be awarded the Medal of Honor in Vietnam.
Humble in every respect, Donlon didn’t feel what he had done was heroic: “In my situation and every other situation that leads to the Medal of Honor, there is absolutely no input from the recipient. It’s all done by observers. Heroism is a product of what other people see.”
In November of 1965 while on a flight to Fort Benning, Georgia, Donlon sat next to a young widow whose husband had been KIA in Vietnam. Neither was aware that this was the beginning of a love affair that would last to infinity and beyond. Three years later, Donlon married Norma Shinno Irving on November 9, 1968.
Donlon achieved many awards, honors and accolades during his lifetime, but he considered his two reconciliation projects in Vietnam as his contribution to “Heal the wounds of war.” Both he and his wife Norma believed that, “Those who have invested the most of themselves in war should be the first to reach out in peace.”
The Village of Saugerties named a recreation space in village hall on Partition Street the Donlon Auditorium on December 28, 1964. In 2013, the Town of Saugerties named its municipal complex on High Street the Col. Roger H.C. Donlon Saugerties Town Hall. A new sign was dedicated to him in 2016. Donlon attended the ceremony.
He is survived by numerous family members and will be remembered as a devoted family man, faithful to God and his church, a patriot to the core and always a friend and mentor to those with whom he came in contact.
A Celebration of Life will be held on April 10, 2024, beginning at the Frontier Conference Center in Fort Leavenworth, KS. Burial service to follow at Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery.
There are now 64 living Medal of Honor recipients alive today.
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