GARY ROSE: THE ONE-MAN FIELD HOSPITAL
The cover photo shows SGT Gary M. Rose being met by his comrades with a cold beer after his return to base from a top secret mission 70 km behind enemy lines. As a Special Forces medic with the notorious MACV-SOG, he was responsible for the medical care of 135 soldiers, and he brought almost every one of them home safely.
“Operation Tailwind” began on September 11, 1970 in Laos, during the Vietnam War. The plan was to hit the enemy by surprise and pull him away from his own line of attack. 120 South Vietnamese soldiers and 16 American special forces flew deep into hostile territory escorted by gunships, and they were taking heavy fire before they even touched down.
Once on the ground, the force moved straight into the thick of the jungle while the North Vietnamese Army pulled units into the area to find the intruders. Through the day the two sides fought each other for hours at a time, and the unit soon had its first wounded. At one point the wounded men were lying outside their own perimeter and were close to being captured. Rose got all of them out: he pushed forward under enemy fire and dragged his wounded comrades back into cover, laying down his own covering fire as he went.
During one of these rescues an RPG-2 wounded him in the foot, and from then on he needed a stick as a crutch on every march. It did not stop him from treating the many wounded, and he gave up sleep and food to do it. It was down to him that the unit stayed combat effective despite the enemy counterattacks and took an NVA camp completely by surprise, securing important documents in the process. When the team set up camp at night, he dug positions to get the wounded out of enemy fire. He also built improvised stretchers from sticks and slings to keep up with the growing number of injured comrades.
On September 14, the last day of the operation, the company destroyed another camp and was then told by a Forward Air Controller (FAC) that more than 500 enemy fighters were moving on their position. Covered by gunships, the company pulled back to a landing zone and set up a perimeter while the platoons boarded the helicopters one at a time. When the North Vietnamese Army attacked from every side and caused more losses, Rose put himself into enemy fire again to recover and treat the dead and the wounded. He helped them aboard and did not get on himself until the last evacuation helicopter.
Shortly after the helicopter lifted off it was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and the engine cut out at 1,400 m. Rose was told that a door gunner had taken a round in the neck, started treatment at once and saved the Marine’s life. Moments later, after only a few hundred meters of flight, the helicopter went down and threw Rose out of the cabin. Dazed and wounded himself, the medic crawled back into the wreck to pull out the wounded and unconscious soldiers, knowing full well that it could go up at any moment. He treated his injured comrades until a second rescue helicopter arrived and flew the force back to base. Over the course of the operation Rose had treated 60–70 soldiers in total. Every American and more than half of the South Vietnamese had been wounded. Only three of them died.
Rose was nominated for the Medal of Honor immediately, but because the mission in Laos was classified, the award was downgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross. After the case was reviewed again, the Vietnam veteran, by then 60 years old, was finally awarded the Medal of Honor on October 23, 2017.
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