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Vietnam War Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
Sgt. Peter C. Lemon, US Army
CITATION:
LEMON, PETER C.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company E, 2d Battalion, 8th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division. place and date: Tay Ninh province, Republic of Vietnam, 1 April 1970. Entered service at: Tawas City, Mich. Born: 5 June 1950, Toronto, Canada. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Lemon (then Sp4c.), Company E, distinguished himself while serving as an assistant machine gunner during the defense of Fire Support Base Illingworth. When the base came under heavy enemy attack, Sgt. Lemon engaged a numerically superior enemy with machine gun and rifle fire from his defensive position until both weapons malfunctioned. He then used hand grenades to fend off the intensified enemy attack launched in his direction. After eliminating all but 1 of the enemy soldiers in the immediate vicinity, he pursued and disposed of the remaining soldier in hand-to-hand combat. Despite fragment wounds from an exploding grenade, Sgt. Lemon regained his position, carried a more seriously wounded comrade to an aid station, and, as he returned, was wounded a second time by enemy fire. Disregarding his personal injuries, he moved to his position through a hail of small arms and grenade fire. Sgt. Lemon immediately realized that the defensive sector was in danger of being overrun by the enemy and unhesitatingly assaulted the enemy soldiers by throwing hand grenades and engaging in hand-to-hand combat. He was wounded yet a third time, but his determined efforts successfully drove the enemy from the position. Securing an operable machine gun, Sgt. Lemon stood atop an embankment fully exposed to enemy fire, and placed effective fire upon the enemy until he collapsed from his multiple wounds and exhaustion. After regaining consciousness at the aid station, he refused medical evacuation until his more seriously wounded comrades had been evacuated. Sgt. Lemon's gallantry and extraordinary heroism, are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the U.S. Army.
Peter has his own website PeterLemon.com
1968 Tawas grad gives his Congressional Medal of Honor to the school
by John Morris
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
TAWAS CITY - His message was meant to inspire the next generation, but in the process Peter C. Lemon touched the lives of several generations on Friday.
Lemon, a 1968 Tawas Area High School graduate, spoke about persistence during an assembly with Tawas Area High School and Junior High students on Friday. However, it was what Lemon did at the end of his presentation, that sent waves of shock and awe across the Tawas Area High School gymnasium.
Lemon, who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor -- the nation's most prestigious war decoration, donated it to the high school to inspire and encourage current and future students at the school.
"I've had an opportunity to travel all over the United States," Lemon said in presenting the award. "To me, this is the greatest place in the world to grow up."
Using examples from his own life, Lemon spoke to the students on the value of being persistent. Lemon grew up in Alabaster Township and had 8,000 acres of prime hunting property in his back yard.
Lemon said he graduated from Tawas Area with less than a favorable grade point average. After his high school graduation, Lemon went to work in Saginaw for a short period before deciding to join the military.
He served two years in the U.S. Army where he was trained in the infantry and was sent to fight in Vietnam.
Following his military service, Lemon applied for admission at Colorado State University in September 1975. However, he was initially turned down because of his low grade point average on his high school transcripts.
"I could have given up, but I didn't," Lemon told the students.
Lemon said he eventually wrote the governor of the state, its secretary of education and eventually made an appointment with the president of the university. Still, each time he was denied admission because of his "lousy" transcripts.
But Lemon also had a plan: persistence. Once a week he visited with the director of admissions at the university. The weekly visits went on for months. Finally in May, the admission director relented.
"He says, Okay, if you take two classes during the summer term and get at least a 2.0 grade point average -- I'll let you in in the fall," Lemon recalled.
Lemon told the students he took three courses and passed them with a 3.0 GPA. Within three and a half years Lemon earned his bachelor's degree in speech and business management and went on to earn a master's degree in business.
He said persistence also paid off in the business world. Lemon said after he purchased a construction company, he found a niche in the petroleum industry: building service stations for oil companies.
However, Lemon said he had one drawback -- no experience. But he had one key element -- persistence.
After several unsuccessful attempts to land a contract with several large oil companies were unsuccessful. Until one day, after several repeated visits, he was finally awarded a small contract to begin constructing service stations. Today, his service stations are in at least four western states and in Michigan.
As one of just 129 living Medal of Honor recipients, and Lemon is the youngest recipient at 54 years of age, he also wrote a book "Beyond the Medal" based on the lives of four Medal of Honor recipients from Pueblo, Colo., a small community of about 55,000 people.
Lemon said he also had difficulties in getting the book published until one agent stepped up to bat for him. Lemon said the book has been sent to every junior high in the United States.
His latest project was a documentary "Beyond the Medal of Honor" which is based on Lemon's book. Lemon researched the material for the book and co-produced it. However, his dream of having the five disc set in every high school in the nation wasn't realized until Ross Perot stepped up to the plate. And that came after many unsuccessful attempts to get corporate America to fund the distribution.
"I wanted to put this in all high schools in the United States," Lemon told the students, "to motivate and inspire the future of our nation. The future is in your hands.
"No matter what you want to do in life, you can't give up."
Lemon never touched on his own heroic military service during his speech Friday and he later said he simply ran out of time.
"I'm very proud of my military service," Lemon later said. "To me, it's one of the highlights of my life."
According to the inscription in the framed Medal of Honor he presented to the high school, "vastly outnumbered during an intense enemy attack, Lemon and 11 other members of two squads responded with small arms fire and grenades. Lemon openly moved from position to position, repulsing the charging adversaries.
"Realizing their post was perilously close to being overrun, he grabbed a machine gun, stood fully exposed atop an embankment and fired on the enemy. Although wounded several times, Lemon refused to be evacuated until the enemy had retreated and his injured comrades were airlifted to safety."
Sergeant Lemon's heroic actions came in Vietnam on April 1, 1970 he was a U.S. Army Ranger with the Company E (Recon), 2/8 Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division.
Lemon presented the Medal of Honor as a surprise to school officials. With several of his high school friends include three who are Vietnam veterans lined up during the presentation, Tawas Area High School Principal Jim Kiblinger and former Principal John Alexander unwrapped the silver-wrapped gift to find a second wrap of plain brown paper. Upon removing the brown wrap, Kiblinger and Alexander, quickly realized the contents of the gift: Lemon's Medal of Honor.
"It's unbelievable," Alexander said with tears welling up in his eyes.
And once they discovered the contents of the gift, the Tawas Area student body rose to their feet as one offering a thunderous applause of thanks to Lemon.
"This is just phenomenal," Kiblinger said. "This give our students the knowledge to know that they can do whatever they reach for. No matter where you're from, you always have a chance."
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