Army Master Sgt. John F. Baker Jr., who received the Medal of Honor for saving the lives of eight of his fellow soldiers during an ambush in Vietnam, was remembered Friday as a fearless, but compassionate soldier who continued to serve others until his death last week.
“He wasn’t just someone you wanted beside you in combat,” said Lt. Gen. Robert Foley, Baker’s company commander during the Vietnam War and who also receive the Medal of Honor in the same battle. “He reached out to others all his life.”
Baker, 66, who lived with his wife, Donnell, in Northeast Richland, was the last Army soldier with ties to South Carolina to receive the medal from any conflict. He was one of only 239 service members from the Vietnam War to receive the nation’s highest award for valor in combat.
Col. Charles P. Murray Jr., who received the Medal of Honor in France during World War II, died Aug. 12 in his Columbia home of congestive heart failure. Baker, like Murray, will be interred in Arlington National Cemetery.
Baker died Aug. 20. He collapsed in his kitchen after returning home from supper. He had undergone open heart surgery in 2008.
Three other Medal of Honor recipients attended the memorial service at Fort Jackson: Foley; Maj. Gen. James E. Livingston of Charleston; and, Col. Walter J. “Joe” Marm of Fremont, N.C.
Baker’s flag-draped coffin was carried on a horse-drawn caisson through Fort Jackson to the post theater. The half-mile route was flanked by 1,300 soldiers in Class A “dress blue” uniforms. They were led by post commander Maj. Gen. James. M. “Mike” Milano.
Baker was born in Davenport, Iowa, and went to high school in nearby Moline, Ill. In 2008, the I-280 bridge connecting Davenport with Rock Island, Ill., was renamed in his honor.
Although recovering from open heart surgery, Baker rode across the bridge on a Harley Davidson motorcycle. In addition, he agreed to the honor only if plaques were included honoring Vietnam veterans on one end and all veterans on the other.
Foley remembered that in Vietnam, Baker volunteered for his Alpha Company, 27 Infantry, 25th Infantry Division, because “he wanted to see some action and be closer to the fight.”
Baker was a 5-foot-2, 105-pound “tunnel rat” — a soldier who, armed with only a pistol and a flashlight, would crawl into enemy tunnels to clear them. It was a perilous task that Baker conducted about 300 times, Foley said.
“John was always the first to volunteer,” he said.
On Nov. 5, 1966, Baker earned the Medal of Honor during an ambush, saving the lives of eight fellow soldiers, killing 10 Viet Cong and knocking out six machine-gun bunkers.
President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded Baker and Foley their medals on May 1, 1968, saying:
“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.”
Donnell Baker liked to tell the story of how Johnson, noticing the height difference between the 5-foot-2 Baker and the 6-foot-7 Foley, said they reminded him of cartoon characters Mutt and Jeff.
Several eulogists at Friday’s memorial service commented on Baker’s love of eagles. He had a collection more than 200 model and ceramic eagles and said he believed he would return as an eagle, the eulogists said.
Fort Jackson Chaplain Col. Bart Physioc noted the eagle meant more to Baker than a hobby.
“It was the emblem of his country and the emblem he wore around his neck for 45 years,” he said.
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