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To say 'I love you'

Gainesville Daily Register - 4/6/2018

April 05--A message of love and commitment was shared with Gainesville Junior High School students Thursday by Medal of Honor recipient Jim McCloughan.

McCloughan, a United States Army veteran who served during the Vietnam War, visited the school with 13 other Medal of Honor recipients to share their stories.

"I wear this medal for 89 men who went into a battle," said McCloughan about a 48-hour battle in May of 1969. "We didn't know how many enemy soldiers were there, but once we got there, we realized there were a lot of them there."

McCloughan, who was a combat medic, said the group of men were up against 1,500 to 2,000 soldiers from the North Vietnamese Army and 700 Viet Cong soldiers.

"Each and every one of us had to depend on each other to get through that," he said.

McCloughan, who estimated weighing 145 pounds at the time, said he wasn't counting, but people say he went out 10 times and saved 11 men.

"It's amazing how strong you can get when you have to save someone else's life," he said describing bringing in two men at once -- one man that was 225 pounds and one man that was 185 pounds.

McCloughan told students his father taught him that "you never do anything halfway. You do it to the best of your ability, and you do it to the end."

He said he was wounded by a rocket-propelled grenade the first day of battle but refused evacuation.

"Just like my father had told me, the job wasn't over yet," McCloughan said. "I thought I had just spent my last day on earth, because I knew there were a lot of them (enemy soldiers) out there, and I couldn't calculate how we were going to get out of this."

McCloughan said he was injured two more times that second day. He was struck by another rocket-propelled grenade while bringing in a man who was shot in the shoulder and was hit by an AK-47 tending to a man with a stomach wound.

He said he took the man with the stomach wound to the trench line and thought about how he was going to carry him.

"Out of nowhere, this thought came to me. It had been since I was a small boy that I told my father that I loved him," McCloughan said. "So I bargained with God in that trench line. I said if you get me out of this hell on earth so I can tell my father again face-to-face that I love him, I will be the best coach, the best teacher and the best father that I can possibly be."

McCloughan ended up cradling the solider like a baby through the crossfire to safety, he said.

He said the first thing he did upon his return was run to his dad, hug him and tell him that he loved him at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.

"That's how we greeted each other, and that's how we said goodbye to each other from then on," McCloughan said.

Being surrounded in a room full of students isn't anything out of the ordinary for McCloughan. He taught sociology and psychology at South Haven High School until his retirement in 2008, earning him the Michigan Education Associations' 40 years of Service Award, according to his profile on the United States Army website. He was also the recipient of the Wolverine Conference Distinguished Service Award for 38 years of coaching football and baseball, in addition to 22 years of coaching wrestling.

McCloughan gave the Gainesville Junior High School students one assignment before his departure, to tell someone "I love you."

Principal David Glancy said the recipients' visit is one of the highlights of their school year.

"It's such a great opportunity for our students," he said. "It just makes the things they are learning come alive."

A total of 17 Medal of Honor recipients are scheduled to be in town this week as part of the Medal of Honor Host City Program. Two recipients previously expected to attend -- Gary Wetzel and Robert Modrzejewski -- canceled, according to Tommy Moore, president of the Medal of Honor Host City Program Board of Directors.

Today the recipients are scheduled to attend a tree dedication ceremony at 10 a.m. along the Home Grown Hero Walking Trail. The day will conclude with the sold-out Medal of Honor Banquet at the Gainesville Civic Center.

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(c)2018 the Gainesville Daily Register (Gainesville, Texas)

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