I was born in Roselyn, Illinois which is now a suburb of Chicago.
I was pretty much raised in Indiana.
It's where I attended grade school, and junior high.
I had been bullied in grade school and in high school quite a lot.
I was...
I'm not the hero, you know, that you see in the books.
I was pushed around a lot when I was in grade school, high school.
Had a bad self image.
And I wanted to test myself. I had come to that point in my growth
that I needed to do something to figure out who I was.
So I volunteered for Vietnam.
NARRATOR: Allen Lynch enlisted in the Army in 1964.
Two years later he volunteered to go to Vietnam.
By December of 1967
Lynch was serving as radio telephone operator
with the 12th Cavalry in Bin Dinh province.
We had been in the field for quite a long time,
had been chasing the North Vietnamese and the VC
quite a lot during November, December.
And a lot of fire fights, lot of contact.
So they pulled us out to stand down,
that's where you get your showers and you'll get your weapons fixed
and all of that kind of thing.
And so a bunch of us had gone to town and got back to base
and walked into a briefing.
It seems that A Company was sucked into an ambush
and was screaming for help and so on.
And we were to air assault in the next day, zero dark thirty, and relieve them.
And so we air assaulted into
some village.
We were getting ready to move
around the perimeter to go in and hit A Company,
or hit where A Company was from the flank.
And it seems that A Company was the bait.
The Vietnamese were dug in. They were in spider holes.
They were in hooches. They were in trees. They were everywhere.
And what they did is they let us...
they let us move in,
and we walked into an ambush.
One of our point men tried to get back.
The other, his partner, was shot in both legs,
in the shins.
So he came back and...
--got shot halfway out. I think he got shot in the shoulder.
So I went out and got him and brought him back to our lines.
And he told me that his partner was laying out there
and couldn't move because his legs were gone.
They were shattered pretty good.
So I dropped my radio, which I shouldn't have done.
I asked my LT if I could go get him.
I thought I'd just run out, pick him up and bring him home.
And as it happened, I went out there and got him,
and we both got pinned down.
And then Gasaros started to come over, I think, to help out.
And about halfway over, he got shot.
So I went out and got him.
And there was such intense fire that there was only one place to go,
and that was back to where we were.
NARRATOR: Unable to return to friendly lines,
Lynch remained on the battlefield to aid his wounded comrades.
He secured a nearby trench by killing two enemy soldiers at point blank range.
With the trench cleared, he returned through heavy enemy fire
to carry the wounded men to safety.
We stayed for a long time.
They called in artillery and jet strikes on us.
Jets came so close over us we could count the rivets on the fuselage.
They actually came over. When they came over, they dropped napalm right on top.
We actually watched the napalm being let go,
and it spun.
Had I been in school I would have known that with the speed,
distance and all of that, we were not gonna get hurt.
But at that time it was pretty scary.
NARRATOR: Alone, Lynch defended his isolated position for two hours
against the advancing enemy
until he was able to carry the wounded across an exposed area
to a more secure position.
He then located a counterattacking friendly force to assist
in directing the attack and evacuating the wounded.
I got back to my unit. They pulled us all out.
When we were finally rescued, they pulled us all out of the field.
The wounded guys went into one tent and got their wounds taken care of.
And I got into another tent, got a little white pill.
And then I had
several
liquid refreshments
--for a couple of days, and then I ended up back with my unit
that was standing down on another LZ.
And I came back and they told me they had put me in for the Medal of Honor.
Then it got lost.
Never heard anything about it.
Then the day before I got married
I was notified I was going to get the Medal of Honor.
I had a police--
I have a problem with my foot when I drive.
It seems to press down on the gas too much.
So I was coming home
and I was followed by a police officer for the last couple of miles.
I'd turn, he'd turn. I'm going, "Oh, criminy, I'm gonna, you know, get a ticket."
And pull into my driveway and he pulls in right behind me.
I get out, "Gees, officer, I'm sorry. What did I do?"
He says, "Is your name Allen Lynch?" I said, "Yes."
He says, "Is your Social Security number this?" I said, "Yes."
He says, "Call this number."
And I'm, like, "What did I do?"
And he says, "It's a good thing.
I'll see you. Good-bye, have a nice day. Call that number."
So I went into the house. I called the number and I got some colonel.
He says "Are you Allen Lynch?" The same thing.
He ways, "Well, I have the great honor to tell you that you're going to be
receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Nixon on..."
--I think it was Armed Forces Day, 1970.
There were 12 of us that received the Medal that day by President Nixon.
I was so blown away when they put that Medal around my neck.
And I'd never realized the impact that it would have on my life.
This is a representation of the very best that America has to offer.
We are given the tremendous honor and privilege
of representing the thousands upon thousands of men and women
who have served our country, who did wonderful, marvelous, heroic things
and never got recognized.
And we carry this for them.
It's not me.
It's not what I did.
It's what they did that wasn't recognized.
And I think that's-- it's a tremendous responsibility.
It's a tremendous honor to do this.