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Retired Marine Sergeant Major John Canley: Our Latest Medal of Honor Recipient
Wednesday afternoon, retired Sergeant Major John Canley became the 300th Marine to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. President Trump presented the award to the 80-year-old Marine, who is still straight of back and clear-voiced, standing tall in his sharp dress uniform. Sergeant Major Canley was belatedly recognized for one especially noteworthy episode in a long career.
Canley, who spent 28 years in the service, left El Dorado, Arkansas, at the age of 15 to join the Marines. [He used his brother’s documents to enlist two years below the youngest recruiting age!]
He was deployed to Vietnam several times from 1965 to 1970 and his efforts saved the lives of many men, earning him the Navy Cross.
The repeated deployments were common for the non-commissioned officer corps, both Marine Corps and Army. These were the military professionals whose experience held units together and saved lives. The Marine Corps briefly summarized Sergeant Major Canley’s career. His actions were originally recognized with a Navy Cross but the facts in the file cried out for the highest recognition, prompting a long upgrade review process. Here is what then Gunnery Sergeant John L. Canley did in 1968 (Medal of Honor Citation):
The President of the United States, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in awarding the Congressional Medal of Honor to Gunnery Sergeant John L. Canley, United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy while serving as Company Gunnery Sergeant, Alpha Company, First Battalion, First Marines, First Marine Division, from 31 January to 6 February 1968, in the Republic of Vietnam.
Alpha Company fought off multiple vicious attacks as it rapidly moved along the highway toward Huế City to relieve friendly forces that were surrounded by enemy.
Despite being wounded in these engagements, Gunnery Sergeant Canley repeatedly rushed across fire-swept terrain to carry his wounded Marines to safety.
After his commanding officer was severely wounded, Gunnery Sergeant Canley took command and led the company into Huế City.
At Huế City, caught in deadly crossfire from enemy machine gun positions, he set up a base of fire and maneuvered with a platoon in a flanking attack that eliminated several enemy positions.
Retaining command of the company for three days, he led attacks against multiple enemy fortified positions while routinely braving enemy fire to carry wounded Marines to safety.
On 4 February, he led a group of Marines into an enemy-occupied building in Huế City. He moved into the open to draw fire, located the enemy, eliminated the threat, and expanded the company’s hold on the building room by room. Gunnery Sergeant Canley then gained position above the enemy strongpoint and dropped in a large satchel charge that forced the enemy to withdraw.
On 6 February, during a fierce firefight at a hospital compound, Gunnery Sergeant Canley twice scaled a wall in full view of the enemy to carry wounded Marines to safety.
By his undaunted courage, selfless sacrifice, and unwavering devotion to duty, Gunnery Sergeant Canley reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.
.
Published in Military
We’re lucky we still produce men like this.
I am still reeling from the fact that this wonderful gentleman is 80 years old. I was in junior high and high school during the years that he served, and headed up many projects to send CARE packages, Christmas packages, and Lord-knows-what-other-sorts-of-packages to the troops. In addition, we wrote letters back and forth to soldiers in the field.
In my mind, those young men have never aged. Some of them, I know for a fact, never came home. Many, many did and lived wonderful productive lives. Some of them didn’t do quite as well.
Bless them all.
I am the same species as this man. I couldn’t be more proud of one who makes us look this good.
The Congressional Medal of Honor, as presently defined, represented a significant change in eligibility, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
Thank you for letting us know about this fine man. He sure doesn’t look like he’s 80!
Thanks for the reminder that our country produces men like Sgt. Canley. With men like him, hope is not lost.
I saw him on the TeeVees and said “My G-d, is he still on active duty?”
What the hell took them so long?
God bless you, thank you, Semper Fidelis and OohRah, Sgt.Major Canley! (Thank you, as well, @cliffordbrown, for the motivation in this post.)
Ooh-Rah!
Now there is a man who can claim the title of United States Marine!
Is it common to give out a Medal of Honor so late after the relevant action?
Edit: Darn you phone keyboard.
Damn. Truly a man’s man.
My pedant alarms are going off full blast right now.
It’s the Medal of Honor. There’s no such thing as a “Congressional” Medal of Honor. It’s awarded by the President and the Congress has no input, and that’s not its name.
There is a society formed by Congress called the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, but that is a society formed by Congress for those who have been awarded the Medal of Honor.
I’m flabbergasted that the introduction to the citation refers to Congress and a “Congressional” Medal of Honor. That is just plain old wrong.
Obviously no. But it does happen. The trend has been to upgrade or recognize minorities who, at least tacitly, suggest that racism kept their recognition subdued. But, no, this is not common. It takes a lot of work and political wrangling to do this.
Semper Fi.
I’ve printed it before on Ricochet, but it bears repeating:
In James Michener’s book “The Bridges at Toko-Ri,” he writes of an officer waiting through the night for the return of planes to a carrier as dawn is coming on. And he asks, “Where do we find such men?” Well, we find them where we’ve always found them. They are the product of the freest society man has ever known. They make a commitment to the military—make it freely, because the birthright we share as Americans is worth defending. God bless America.
Citation: Ronald Reagan: “Radio Address to the Nation on Armed Forces Day ,” May 15, 1982.
Hm. I’m curious now. There is a review board for these things ins’t there? Who and how are things submitted. The way I thought it worked was that commanding officers submit names of subordinates. But for such re reviews is there a process? Or is there some third party now that goes through the records and picks out interesting cases.
You mention political wrangling, so was this the project of some congressman to make sure this man got the full honors he deserved or was this a White House initiative.
Did you read comment #4?
There are rules about the amount of time that can happen between the incident and the award, but they have been waived before.
Eddie Rickenbacker was flying alone one fine day in 1918 when he spotted five Fokkers escorting two Halberstadts on a photo recon mission over American lines. Eddie thought to himself “Huh. Seven Germans. Guess I’ll go mess with them. He shot down a Fokker and a Halberstadt before the rest of them ran for it.
Eddie got his Medal of Honor in 1931.
Yeah, it’s a bunch of nonsense that is not supported by any reference I can find. That is, it is not called the “Congressional Medal of Honor.”
Edit: And yes, I’m trying to back track quietly on the “in the name of congress” line, which appears correct.
Really, that got a Medal of Honor? While reckless, and potentially impressive feat of dog fighting, some how that doesn’t seem that worthy to me. It was a superfluous action. That he lived through (granted), but could easily have gone bad for him, and I doubt he would have gotten the meddle posthumously for that action had he been shot down. I get that he was our greatest fighter ace of the war (WWI that is), and maybe people thought because of that he should get the Medal of Honor too on top of his other decorations. I just feel that compared to something like Sgt. York”s Medal this doesn’t really hold a candle to it. But maybe that isn’t a fair comparison.
SgtMaj Canley (at the time of the action, Gunnery Sergeant Canley) seems to be partially violating the modern rule for the Medal of Honor. It seems like if you’re not jumping on a grenade or saving people then you don’t get the Medal of Honor. He does a little of that, but he also does some ballsy offensive actions.
I think attacking a flight of seven enemy aircraft single handedly is pretty darned offensive and that’s what the award should be for. He could have turned tail and fled and no one would have thought ill of him at all. He went above and beyond the call of duty. I suspect he wouldn’t have been given that award today, but politics come into play and he was a famous flyer and flying was very new and mysterious. I still think he earned it, though. A few of the modern awards seem more questionable to me. A woman is more likely to be awarded a higher award than a man, both because we don’t really expect much of women, and because it’s politically popular to promote women in combat.
1st Sgt. Harry J. Adams and his lieutenant were down below somewhere rounding up German prisoners. When they got to eighty, the lieutenant decided to escort them to the rear and told Adams to see if he could find any more. Adams spotted one diving through the doorway of a dugout, so he sent a pair of shots in through the door with his pistol and told the German to come out with his hands up. Out he came, then another one, and another one, then about three hundred more. Adams lined them up and marched them in, covering them with his M-1911 — his empty M-1911. The two rounds that he had just fired were the last two that he had. He marched them in, bluffing all the way.
That was worth a Distinguished Service Cross.
Yeah, and there’s likely not a single Marine on Iwo Jima or Peleliu whose actions wouldn’t today merit a silver star or more, but who went the entire four years of multiple amphibious landings and all they got was an Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal.
You don’t look very hard before venting.
Here is Audie Murphy’s MOH order. Relevant section (emphasis added):
Here is the current law:
Do we not want to be reminded of where they did/what they did, @skyler? Honest question.
There are two processes, one entirely within the Executive branch, another involving Congress and the Executive:
Care to substantiate this slur?