The Giant Killer - Contributed by Steven Quick

The Giant Killer

At 5' 2" 105 lbs, Medal of Honor recipient, Sgt. John F. Baker Jr. certainly qualifies as a Giant Killer. He was also the recipient of the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart.

Sgt. Baker made up for his diminutive stature by building up his physique. Inspired by his father’s work as a circus trapeze artist, he joined a gymnastics squad in high school and trained on the rings, learning to execute a perfect iron cross.

Accepted by the Army during the Vietnam War — the Marine Corps said he was an inch too short — Sgt. Baker’s impressive strength helped him save the lives of his fellow soldiers.

On Nov. 5, 1966, Sgt. Baker’s unit was tasked with reinforcing a group of American soldiers pinned down near Dau Tieng, close to the Cambodian border. About 3,000 Vietnamese had taken positions in the surrounding jungle, hiding in underground bunkers and roping themselves to tree branches.

As the U.S. soldiers advanced, the lead scout was shot in the face.

The jungle erupted in enemy fire. Camouflaged machine gun positions spit bullets that whizzed by Sgt. Baker’s head. Mortar rounds thumped the ground. Snipers in the trees picked off Americans hiding on the ground.

Sgt. Baker ran toward the front with another soldier and helped destroy two enemy bunkers. During the attack, the other soldier was mortally wounded. Sgt. Baker killed four enemy snipers before carrying his comrade away from the ambush.

Returning to the battle, Sgt. Baker was blown off his feet by an enemy grenade but recovered to make repeated trips through withering fire to evacuate wounded American soldiers much larger than himself. By the end of the two-hour conflict, Sgt. Baker’s uniform was soaked in the blood of his comrades.

In all, Sgt. Baker was credited with recovering eight fallen U.S. soldiers, destroying six bunkers and killing at least 10 enemies.

As his Medal of Honor nomination was considered, Sgt. Baker spent the rest of his tour as a “tunnel rat.” Armed with a flashlight and pistol, he explored the spider- and scorpion-infested subterranean network used by Viet Cong guerillas. During one mission, he discovered a full-scale hospital complete with surgical suites buried three stories below ground.

Returning home in August 1967, Sgt. Baker served as a drill instructor. One day, he was told he had an urgent phone call. It was President Lyndon B. Johnson on the line, inviting him to the White House to be awarded the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest decoration for valor.

According to his citation, “Sgt. Baker’s selfless heroism, indomitable fighting spirit, and extraordinary gallantry were directly responsible for saving the lives of several of his comrades, and inflicting serious damage on the enemy.”

Joining Sgt. Baker at the ceremony in the East Room was his company commander, then-Capt. Robert F. Foley, who also was awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery during the same battle that November day in 1966.

Foley, who retired from the Army as a lieutenant general in 2000, stood 6-foot-7 and played basketball at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Noticing the soldiers’ disparate heights, Johnson told Sgt. Baker and Foley that they reminded him of the cartoon characters Mutt and Jeff.

John Franklin Baker Jr. was born Oct. 30, 1945, in Davenport, Iowa, and was raised in Moline, Ill.

After being awarded the Medal of Honor, Sgt. Baker traveled the country as a recruiter. His repeated requests to be sent back to Vietnam for combat duty were denied. He retired from the military in 1989 and later worked at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Columbia, S.C.

The Giant Killer book & page honors these incredible war heroes making sure their stories of valor and sacrifice are never forgotten. The Giant Killer book is available now on Amazon & Walmart websites. God Bless our Vets!

In 2010 the Interstate 2-80 bridge was named the Sgt. John F. Baker Jr. Bridge. Initiating the successful process through all its steps and organizing the dedication ceremony was the Quad Cities Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 299. Spearheaded by Ray Hamilton and William Albracht.

On Veteran's Day - John F. Baker Represents Those Who Fought for Their Country

 

John F. Baker

The John F. Baker Bridge

 The funeral 

 LBJ bestowed the Medal of Honor.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. En route to assist another unit that was engaged with the enemy, Company A came under intense enemy fire and the lead man was killed instantly. Sgt. Baker immediately moved to the head of the column and together with another soldier knocked out two enemy bunkers. When his comrade was mortally wounded, Sgt. Baker, spotting four Viet Cong snipers, killed all of them, evacuated the fallen soldier, and returned to lead repeated assaults against the enemy positions, killing several more Viet Cong. Moving to attack two additional enemy bunkers, he and another soldier drew intense enemy fire and Sgt. Baker was blown from his feet by an enemy grenade. He quickly recovered and singlehandedly destroyed one bunker before the other soldier was wounded. Seizing his fallen comrade's machine gun, Sgt. Baker charged through the deadly fusillade to silence the other bunker. 

He evacuated his comrade, replenished his ammunition, and returned to the forefront to brave the enemy fire and continue the fight. When the forward element was ordered to withdraw, he carried one wounded man to the rear. As he returned to evacuate another soldier, he was taken under fire by snipers, but raced beyond the friendly troops to attack and kill the snipers. After evacuating the wounded man, he returned to cover the deployment of the unit. 

His ammunition now exhausted, he dragged two more of his fallen comrades to the rear. Sgt. Baker's selfless heroism, indomitable fighting spirit, and extraordinary gallantry were directly responsible for saving the lives of several of his comrades, and inflicting serious damage on the enemy. 

His acts were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

 Defense Department

Retired Army Master Sgt. John F. Baker Jr. could have had a prominent gymnastics career, since he competed in high school and trained for the Olympics in his hometown of Moline, Illinois. But after graduation in 1966, he decided to pursue something entirely different: service in the Army and a tour of duty in Vietnam, which earned him the Medal of Honor.

Only a few short months after he began his Army training, Baker was shipped off to Vietnam with the 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division.  

A private first class at the time, 19-year-old Baker said he and his company went out in the jungles for weeks at a time on combat patrols. Often, since he was small guy – only 5 feet 2 inches tall weighing 105 pounds – he was tasked with crawling through Viet Cong tunnels filled with booby traps to try to lure the enemy out of their hiding spots. 

Baker had been in Vietnam for only two months, when, on Nov. 5, 1966, he and his company were called to help rescue another unit that had been surrounded by Viet Cong. On the way there they were ambushed, and the man at the front of Baker’s unit was killed instantly. An assistant machine-gun bearer at the time, Baker immediately moved to the head of the group, and, with another soldier, knocked out two enemy bunkers. 

Throughout the ordeal, Baker repeatedly assaulted the enemy and pulled wounded soldiers to safety. 

At one point, he was blown off his feet by a grenade, but he recovered and single-handedly took out another bunker, then another. 

When the battle was over, Baker had saved eight of his fellow soldiers, knocked out six Viet Cong machine gun bunkers, and killed 10 enemy soldiers, including several snipers. His courage and commitment under fire earned him the Medal of Honor in 1968, which he received from President Lyndon B. Johnson. 

Baker continued to serve in the Army until 1989, when he retired to Columbia, South Carolina. He and his wife regularly attended special events at nearby Fort Jackson, and he continued helping soldiers by working for the Veterans Administration until his death in January 2012. He was 66.

“Five-foot-two John Baker was a giant,” said Army Col. Drew Meyerowich at Baker’s funeral. “Once you got to know him, you realized he’s exactly the giant we expect to see on the battlefield. He was larger than life.” 

In August of this year, Baker was honored by U.S. Army Garrison Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, which named a street after him.

This article is part of a weekly series called "Medal of Honor Monday," in which we highlight one of the more than 3,500 Medal of Honor recipients who have earned the U.S. military's highest medal for valor.

Moline High School finally honored Baker - see the article here on Moline Memories.

Established 2010 - Moline Memories Blog Reached 300,000 Views Today

 This photo shows how tough the Moline teachers were. 

I started the Moline Memories blog in 2010. I thought some recollections might be interesting for our grandchildren in the distant future. Writing creates a need for research, so I learned a lot about our area: John Deere, the celebrities born or raised in Moline, the important leaders of the past.

I report on our the Moline High Class of 1966 - The Class the Stars Fell On. We have a growing list of Golden Wedding Anniversaries, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Views were very few at first, a few dozen a day. Now they average several thousand a month. I enjoy the shift in most seen for the week, which shows readers picking up on topics from the past and reading them.

It helps that my mother was one of the best teachers in an excellent school system and my father was a legendary baker. Classmates have asked me to re-start Melo-Cream and make more long johns and cinnamon fries for them.

A 2010 Moline Memories Post -

On February 3rd, 1959, a small plane took off in a winter storm and crashed immediately, killing Buddy Holly, J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper), Ritchie Valens, and the pilot.

On a Winter Dance Tour, their last concert was at Clear Lake, Iowa, near Mason City, hometown of the Music Man, Meredith Wilson.

Holly's early death was especially tragic, because he was a musical pioneer with great talent and a young wife. She was expecting but lost the child.

Don McLean coined the term the day the music died in his song "American Pie." The song became a perennial hit, encouraging the fad of inexplicable lyrics. One attempt to decode the song is located here.

Holly's songs are classic pop, simple and evocative.

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Dave Coopman has left a new comment on your post "February 3rd - The Day the Music Died":

The Winter Dance Tour played the Capitol Theater in Davenport on January 29, 1959. It was sponsored by KSTT, and for this appearance it was called the Concert of Stars, since it was the only venue where dancing could not take place. There was an ice storm in the Quint Cities that night, but the show was still sold out. 

Strangely, no pictures of that night have ever turned up. There must be some somewhere.

Winter Dance Party Dates:

January 23 - Milwaukee, WI
January 24 - Kenosha, WI
January 25 - Mankato, MN
January 26 - Eau Claire, WI
January 27 - Montevideo, MN
January 28 - St. Paul, MN
January 29 - Davenport, IA
January 30 - Ft. Dodge, IA
January 31 - Duluth, MN
February 1 - Green Bay,WI
February 2 - Clear Lake, IA

 Ken Berry, Moliner, recently celebrated his 85th birthday.
He was known for Mayberry RFD, F Troop, and guesting on the Carol Burnett Show.

I used to walk, bike, and drive by the Bartlett Insurance Agency, near my father's donut shop, little realizing that Bonnie Bartlett would team up with her husband William Daniels in St. Elsewhere, a show we watched all the time, many years later.

The shortest guy in gym class at Moline High earned the Medal of Honor in Viet Nam, John Baker.

 They named this bridge after Sgt. John Baker.

Honoring Our Military on Memorial Day, 2013

Sgt. John Baker from Moline, Illinois, passed away recently. He was in our MHS 66 classes. I remember him from gym class. His small stature made him ideal for serving as a tunnel rat in Viet Nam, an extremely dangerous assignment.

President Johnson awarded him the Medal of Honor, and Moline eventually named a bridge across the Mississippi River after him.

Three of my MHS 66 classmates died in Viet Nam. I knew one quite well, because we were in band together and always had adjoining lockers at Wharton Fieldhouse.

LI and and I attended the Walmart Saturday Morning Meeting
where Ranger Petry talked about his special day of combat,
flexing his mechanical hand.

Nation/Time:
It’s that kind of attitude, in addition to incredible heroism, that the medal honors. In interviews this week, Petry was just as humble about his accomplishments and unbelievably upfront about the gory details. When asked, “What does it feel like to have your hand blown off?” he sprinkled in some humor. “Another weird thought went into my mind,” Petry said, “where’s the Hollywood squirt? Why isn’t this thing spraying out a country mile?” After that, he said, reality and his training kicked in. He applied his own tourniquet to his arm and continued to lead his Rangers through the fight. He referred over and over again to his “younger guys,” the young Ranger privates under his command that he saved that day.

Petry is an awe-inspiring, humble person. He talks about enjoying his robotic prosthetic hand, saying, “I thought I was going to have a hook, which I was content with,” and describes learning to write left handed helping his son prepare for kindergarten: “He was getting ready for kindergarten, so I was getting ready with him. We were doing our ABCs and numbers.” If you haven’t seen this in its entirety, please take the half hour to do so.

The news that makes veterans happy is that there may be more Medals of Honor on the horizon. There are early reports that the White House is considering honoring the first living Marine from Iraq and Afghanistan,  but yesterday belonged to Petry. He handled the spotlight like he handled combat, he’s an incredible ambassador for all who’ve worn the uniform and he has thousands of us cheering in his corner.

Read more: http://nation.time.com/2011/07/13/leroy-petry-the-medal-of-honor-and-intrepidity/#ixzz2URGhanAG

PS - I taught entire classes of Marines in Yuma, Arizona, where they went for training before deployment to Iraq. I had several Navy SEALs in class, and a number of Rangers.

Petry impressed the Walmart audience with his great sense of humor
and modesty.

John Baker, Medal of Honor Recipient, Was in My Moline High School Class

John Baker was a good friend to members of our class, MHS 66.

John Baker, the Quad-Cities' only recipient of the congressional Medal of Honor, died Friday at his home in Columbia, S.C., friends said Saturday. Ray Hamilton of Port Byron, a member of Vietnam Veterans of America/Quad-Cities Chapter 299, said he learned of Mr. Baker's death Saturday morning. He said funeral arrangements are pending. The nation's highest military award, the Medal of Honor was given to Mr. Baker, who grew up in Moline, for actions in Vietnam on Nov. 5, 1966, in which he saved the lives of several of his fellow soldiers. Mr. Hamilton said he helped spearhead efforts by the Quad-Cities chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America to rename the Interstate 280 bridge across the Mississippi River for Mr. Baker. He said he first introduced the idea at a meeting in May of 2007. "I said there's nothing to recognize Baker ever existed," Mr. Hamilton said. "We thought, 'Hey, the 280 bridge is not named. Let's go for it.' " The bridge was dedicated in Mr. Baker's honor in 2010. In a news release, U.S. Rep. Bobby Schilling, R-Colona, called Mr. Baker a friend and role model. "His exemplary acts serve as an embodiment of what the brave American spirit can accomplish," Rep Schilling said. "Sgt. Baker led an exceptional life, and he leaves behind an incredible legacy of courage and leadership. He will be sorely missed." Bill Albracht was president of VVA Chapter 299 when Mr. Hamilton suggested renaming the bridge for Mr. Baker. He said that before the bridge was renamed, Mr. Baker's feelings about the Quad-Cities had been damaged. "He was kind of feeling like this wasn't his home anymore," Mr. Albracht said. "We wanted to restore his reputation." Mr. Baker was a humble man who said that while he was awarded the Medal of Honor, the medal was not actually for him. "He always said the medal wasn't his. He was just a keeper," Mr. Albracht said. "It belonged to all servicemen, to all veterans." Mr. Albracht said he last spoke to Mr. Baker in October. "I didn't think about him every day, but now that he's gone, I'll remember him until the day I die," he said. Mr. Hamilton said Mr. Baker never bragged about his service in Vietnam. "He said, 'The instinct to survive is trememdous,' " Mr. Hamilton said. "He said, 'That's all I did. I just tried to survive.' "

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Congressional Medal of Honor Society

BAKER, JOHN F., JR.

Rank: Sergeant

Organization: U.S. Army

Company: Company A, 2d Battalion

Division: 27th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division

Born: 30 October 1945, Davenport, Iowa

Departed: No

Entered Service At: Moline, Ill.

G.O. Number:

Date of Issue:  

Accredited To:

Place / Date: Republic of Vietnam, 5 November 1966

Citation

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. En route to assist another unit that was engaged with the enemy, Company A came under intense enemy fire and the lead man was killed instantly. Sgt. Baker immediately moved to the head of the column and together with another soldier knocked out 2 enemy bunkers. When his comrade was mortally wounded, Sgt. Baker, spotting 4 Viet Cong snipers, killed all of them, evacuated the fallen soldier and returned to lead repeated assaults against the enemy positions, killing several more Viet Cong. Moving to attack 2 additional enemy bunkers, he and another soldier drew intense enemy fire and Sgt. Baker was blown from his feet by an enemy grenade. He quickly recovered and single-handedly destroyed 1 bunker before the other soldier was wounded. Seizing his fallen comrade's machine gun, Sgt. Baker charged through the deadly fusillade to silence the other bunker. He evacuated his comrade, replenished his ammunition and returned to the forefront to brave the enemy fire and continue the fight. When the forward element was ordered to withdraw, he carried 1 wounded man to the rear. As he returned to evacuate another soldier, he was taken under fire by snipers, but raced beyond the friendly troops to attack and kill the snipers. After evacuating the wounded man, he returned to cover the deployment of the unit. His ammunition now exhausted, he dragged 2 more of his fallen comrades to the rear. Sgt. Baker's selfless heroism, indomitable fighting spirit, and extraordinary gallantry were directly responsible for saving the lives of several of his comrades, and inflicting serious damage on the enemy. His acts were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

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John Baker was born in Davenport, Iowa and attended Moline High School from 1963 to 1966. At 5’ 1”, he was a gymnast before joining the army. He became a "tunnel rat" in Vietnam, a soldier who entered Viet Cong tunnels searching out the enemy and destroying their caches of war material. Baker made the military his career, retiring in 1989. He then began working as a computer analyst at a Veterans Hospital in South Carolina. In addition to serving as the Vice-President of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, he serves as a member on the Nation's Monuments and Cemeteries Committee.

In 2008, the I-280 Bridge, connecting Davenport, Iowa with Rock Island, Illinois, was renamed the Sergeant John F. Baker, Jr., Bridge in his honor.^[1]

Baker entered the U.S. Army in Moline, Illinois, serving as a private in A Company, 2nd Battalion of the 27th Infantry, 25th Division. In Vietnam, Baker took part in Operation Attleboro which began in September 1966. On November 5, 1966, Baker and his unit were called to assist another squad who were taking enemy fire. En route, A Company began to take fire and lost their lead soldier. Together with two other soldiers, Baker took over the head of the column and assisted in destroying two enemy positions. They were moving to take two others when a hand grenade knocked Baker off of his feet.

Baker in uniform

With the two other soldiers wounded, Baker "single handedly" destroyed another bunker before recovering his comrades. Despite taking further fire from enemy bunkers and snipers, Baker continually fell back to replenish ammunition and take back several wounded. For these actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor along with Captain Robert F. Foley, who also received the Medal of Honor for his actions in the battle. When awarded the citation, President Lyndon B Johnson stated:

“

The battlefield is the scarred and the lonely landscape of man’s greatest failure. But is a place where heroes walk. Today we come here to the East Room of the White House to honor two soldiers, two soldiers who—in the same battle and at the same time—met the surpassing tests of their lives with acts of courage far beyond the call of duty. Captain Foley and Sergeant Baker fought in the same company. Now, together, they join the noblest company of them all. They fought because their Nation believed that only by honoring its commitments, and only by denying aggression its conquest, could the conditions of peace be created in Southeast Asia and the world.[2]   Medal of Honor   Silver Star   Legion of Merit   Bronze Star   Purple Heart