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Vietnam War Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas Elbert Creek
'Greater love hath no man than to give up his life for a friend'
Sorrow and Anger: Creek's heroic death forever alters lives of family and fellow Marines
Supreme Sacrifice
By Karen D. Smith
Base of Operations: Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas Creek died during a North Vietnamese ambush of an American resupply convoy headed for Vandegrift Combat Base, pictured here. Highway 9, the road on which Creek sacrificed his life for his fellow Marines, runs from top to bottom in the photo. The Rockpile, the rocky mountain with an American base on it, is in the center background, according to Amarillo Vietnam veteran Jack Casey.
Ready to Ride: U.S. Marines prepare to take a convoy of supplies on Highway 9 in South Vietnam, just south of the Demilitarized Zone, during the Vietnam War. As a 1st lieutenant, Amarillo veteran Jack Casey ran convoys along the same highway where Amarillo Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas Creek died in battle in February 1969.
Editor's Note
Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas Creek put his boots on the ground in Vietnam on the Fourth of July, 1968. Less than seven months later, the flag being waved and burned across the United States draped his coffin. The U.S. House of Representatives Veterans Affairs Committee has approved a measure to rename the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Amarillo in tribute to Creek, whose heroic actions in battle earned him the Medal of Honor. The measure will face a full vote by the House and the same process in the Senate. This is the second installment of the story of Creek, his family and those who have worked to bring him recognition. All quotes from Creek's letters home are verbatim.
In one of his last letters home, Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas Creek vowed to extend his tour in Vietnam so his brothers couldn't be sent there.
He especially worried about his younger brother Roy, who had designs on following him into the Marines.
"Roy, you can see by now I have been through a lot," Tom wrote his little brother weeks before Roy's 18th birthday in March 1969.
"I can't hear out of my right ear at all because of this Damn place. I won't be able to get a good job when I get home. I have scares all over my face from bombs and gun power & I look like I'm 40 years old. I smoke 3 packs of cigaretts a day be cause my nerves is so shot I can't even hold a cup in my hand.
"I'm not telling you a bunch of shit. This place is hell. Please for God sacks please whait until I get home & see mee before you make the mistake of your life."
The young Marine seemed equally distressed by moving quickly through the ranks, a sign perhaps of his skill and thinning troops in country.
"I have a new name over here now," he told his parents. "They call me Billy the Kid be cause I'm so young to kill so many people."
Opportunity tore at him. He sought promotion because of the income and feared it because of the cost.
"I may be a squad leader before long," he said in an undated letter. "I hope not. That's a real hard job to take care of all those guys' lives."
With 166 days left on his tour, Tom wrote his father about retrieving fallen comrades.
"1st platoon got 8 of their men kill this morning in a fight so we have been going out after the bodys," he wrote Jan. 30, 1969. "I know a few of the guys."
Exactly two weeks later, comrades would do the same for him.
It would be his last letter home.
"I've got it, Mac!"
In a hail of bullets and mortar fire Feb. 13, 1969, Tom Creek advanced his position, taking the fight to his phantom enemy.
"If you walk into an ambush, you cannot just stay there and shoot back," said Blaine Liljenquist, Creek's platoon commander in Vietnam, now a 61-year-old Myrtle Beach, S.C., resident. "What you have to do is, you have to assault the ambush."
The chaos could be disorienting, Amarillo Vietnam veteran Jack Casey said.
"The instant your convoy is hit, your heart goes completely through your throat," he said. "You're getting off the road. There's smoke all over the place. They're firing, and you're trying to figure out where it's coming from. You're running into each other. Dust. Smoke. People screaming. Explosions everywhere. You can't imagine the chaos."
Creek took a bullet. Blood could be seen streaming down his neck.
But somehow, he saw what others didn't: A hand rose from behind a knoll. Its fingers released a grenade.
In an interview with High Plains Public Radio last year, Oklahoma veteran Gene McPherson, a Marine sergeant on that convoy mission, recalled seeing Creek running toward him.
"I've got it, Mac!" Creek yelled as he fell on the grenade.
His body rose and fell in a flash of light.
Creek was dead.
But he saved five lives - possibly more, as the Marines defeated their attackers and went on to complete the resupply mission to a beleaguered Vandegrift Combat Base.
McPherson, one of three eyewitnesses who nominated Creek for the Medal of Honor in accounts written April 19, 1969, hadn't shared his story with his family until last year and couldn't go through with a scheduled Globe-News interview.
"After consulting with my wife and my doctor, I'm going to have to decline," he said. "I just can't."
The second of three witnesses, Marine veteran Skip H. Dane - traced to Washington State - also couldn't bear to speak of the tragic day.
"I think those memories are better left buried for me," said an audibly distraught Dane, a squad leader on the convoy mission.
The Globe-News couldn't locate the third eyewitness, Marine veteran Michael G. White.
Like McPherson and Dane, the Creek family was forever altered.
The Western Union condolence telegram arrived at the Creek home Feb. 16, 1969, but gave fewer details of Tom's death than it matter of factly did of how his body would be transported home. The typed text provided information of just how much the government would pay, depending upon what funeral arrangements were made and the cemetery selected.
"I remember when we got the telegram," said Ross Creek Jr., who arrived home late that night. "Mom was in the bedroom crying. Dad was in the kitchen crying. Roy was crying. It was just terrible."
Bobbie Creek sank into depression.
"Seems like for two or three weeks, that's all she could do is cry," Ross Jr. said.
But she pulled it together for her two remaining sons, he said. "She was strong. Life still goes on."
Their father began a habit that Ross Jr. suspects contributed to his death in 1982, at the age of 66.
"I never saw Dad take a drink until after Tom passed away," he said. "People don't realize. 'Course, you lose a son, but it affects the whole family."
Trying to avenge his brother's death, Roy Creek enlisted in the Marines by December 1969 and soon was deployed to Vietnam.
"Tom and Roy were real close," Ross Jr. said. "It was real rough on Roy when Tom passed away.
"It tore my whole family up. To have one pass away and then have another one go right in. And then I got drafted and went into the Marine Corps. I guess (Mom) thought she was going to lose all of us."
Roy, who served two tours in Vietnam, did for Ross Jr. what Tom had vowed to do for him: Roy's presence there kept Ross from having to risk combat.
Tom Creek was buried with full military honors Feb. 22, 1969, at Llano Cemetery, a plain stone, flush to the ground, marking his grave.
On March 11, 1969, Maj. Dale Dorman, inspector-instructor for the Amarillo Marine Corps reserve unit, presented Ross Sr. and Bobbie Creek with their son's medals - except for the Medal of Honor, which had yet to be approved. Creek earned a Purple Heart, Vietnam Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal.
More than a year later, when a Marine major showed up on her doorstep, Bobbie Creek must've feared the war had claimed her son, Roy.
Medal of Honor - Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas Creek died while fighting off a North Vietnamese ambush of a resupply convoy headed for Vandegrift Combat Base. Creek was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in that battle Feb. 13, 1969. Vandegrift was named for Marine Maj. Gen. Alexander Vandegrift , who received the Medal of Honor for heroic accomplishment "at constant risk of his life" as commander of the 1st Marine Division in operations against Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands from Aug. 7 to Dec. 9, 1942. His work was instrumental in securing a valuable base for U.S. forces there, according to his Medal of Honor citation.
Biography
Thomas E. Creek, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism during February 1969 in Vietnam, was born 7 April 1950, in Joplin, Missouri. He grew up in Amarillo, Texas, and attended Forest Hill Elementary School, Horace Man Jr. High School, and Palo Duro High School.
He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, 16 January 1968. He completed recruit training with the 1st Recruit Training Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California, in March 1968. He received individual combat training with Company A, 1st Battalion, 2d Infantry Training Regiment, at Camp Pendleton, California, in April, and basic infantry training with Rifle Training Company, Basic Infantry Training Battalion, 2d Infantry Training Regiment at Camp Pendleton, in May 1968. He was promoted to private first class, 1 June 1968.
In July 1968, he was transferred to the Republic of Vietnam. He first saw duty as a rifleman with Company E, 2d Battalion, 27th Marines, Regimental Landing Team 27, 1st Marine Division. In September 1968, he was assigned duty as fire team leader with Company I, 3d Battalion, 9th Marines, 3d Marine Division and was promoted to, lance corporal on 1 November 1968. While serving in the latter capacity, he was killed in action on 13 February 1969, near the Cam Lo resettlement village.
A complete list of medals and decorations include: the Medal of Honor, the Purple Heart, the National Defense Service Meal, the Vietnam Service Medal with two bronze stars, and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal.
Lance Corporal Creek was survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ross F. Creek, Sr., of Amarillo, Texas and two brothers.
Lance Corporal Creek's Medal of Honor was presented to his family on 20 April 1970 at the White House by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew.
The final resting place of U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Tom Creek is marked by a granite tombstone and two American flags just inside an entrance gate to the Llano city cemetery in Amarillo, Potter County, Texas.
Ross Creek displays the Congressional Medal of Honor awarded to his younger brother Tom, background, for his bravery in combat while serving with the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam in February 1969.
CITATION:
Rank and organization: Lance Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps, Company I, 3d Battalion, 9th Marines, 3d Marine Division (Rein), FMF. Place and date: Near Cam Lo, Republic of Vietnam, 13 February. 1969. Entered service at: Amarillo, Texas. Born 7 April 1950, Joplin, Mo. Citation:: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a rifleman with Company 1 in action against enemy forces. L/Cpl. Creek's squad was providing security for a convoy moving to resupply the Vandegrift Command Base when an enemy command detonated mine destroyed 1 of the vehicles and halted the convoy near the Cam Lo Resettlement Village. Almost immediately, the marines came under a heavy volume of hostile mortar fire followed by intense small-arms fire from a well-concealed enemy force. As his squad deployed to engage the enemy, L/Cpl. Creek quickly moved to a fighting position and aggressively engaged in the fire fight. Observing a position from which he could more effectively deliver fire against the hostile forces. he completely disregarded his own safety as he fearlessly dashed across the fire-swept terrain and was seriously wounded by enemy fire. At the same time, an enemy grenade was thrown into the gully where he had fallen, landing between him and several companions. Fully realizing the inevitable results of his action, L/Cpl. Creek rolled on the grenade and absorbed the full force of the explosion with his body, thereby saving the lives of 5 of his fellow marines. As a result of his heroic action, his men were inspired to such aggressive action that the enemy was defeated and the convoy was able to continue its vital mission. L/Cpl. Creek's indomitable courage, inspired the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
Aiming to Honor: A military squad fires a salute in tribute to Amarillo Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas Creek in a Feb. 22, 1969, funeral at Llano Cemetery. Creek was killed in action in Vietnam on Feb. 13, 1969.
Tribute: Ross Sr. and Bobbie Creek, from left, receive medals earned by their son, Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas Creek, at a ceremony in the family home in March 1969. Thomas Creek was killed in action Feb. 13, 1969, in Vietnam. Maj. Dale Dorman, inspector-instructor for the Amarillo Marine Corps Reserve Unit, presented Creek's parents with their son's Purple Heart, Vietnam Service Medal with two bronze stars, National Defense Service Medal and Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal. In 1970, the late Marine was awarded the Medal of Honor.
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