Medal of Honor recipient to provide keynote address at Veterans Day Breakfast

Out of over 40 million Americans who have served in the Armed Forces since the Civil War, only 3,528 have received the Medal of Honor—our nation’s highest recognition for valor in combat. Today, there are 61 living recipients of the Medal of Honor.   

Soon, one Medal of Honor recipient – Jim McCloughan- will be at The War Memorial. 

The 79-year-old McCloughan is set to give the keynote address at the nonprofit organization’s Veterans Day Breakfast on Nov. 11. 

Residing in Saugatuck, he is the only living Medal of Honor recipient from Michigan.   

McCloughan arrived in Vietnam on March 7, 1969, as a medic with Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry, 196th Brigade, Americal Division. By the middle of May 1969, he and his unit were in Tam Ky for the Battle of Nui Yon Hill.  

“As we were combat assaulted in, two helicopters were shot down,” he said. “One of them, the crew were recovered right away. The other, every time someone came to get them out, they were getting shot at. A squad went out to bring them in. They were coming in fast and there was a man about 75 yards behind them and using his rifle as a crutch, limping along. He went down and I sprinted out to him, sliding in next to him like I was sliding into second base. I asked him where he was wounded. He said, ‘I’m not wounded, I hurt my knee when we jumped out of the helicopter.’ I saw bullets skipping off the ground on both sides of us. I threw him on my shoulders and that’s the first man I saved.” 

From May 13-15, his Medal of Honor action dates, McCloughan is credited with saving the lives of 10 Americans and one Vietnamese interpreter.  

“It was a very horrific battle,” he said. “Nothing can prepare you to see what I saw as a combat medic. I saw things that to this day, the infantry men that were in my unit had no idea what I saw. I made sure, when I could, that they would never see that.”  

On May 13, as his Medal of Honor citation reads, McCloughan, “with complete disregard for his life and personal safety, led two Americans into the safety of a trench while being wounded by shrapnel from a rocket propelled grenade. He ignored a direct order to stay back and braved an enemy assault while moving into the ‘kill zone’ on four more occasions to extract wounded comrades.”  

“My father always told me to never do a job halfway and until the job is done,” McCloughan said. “Having seen the number of people coming down that hill, I knew they were going to need me. I thought by saying that I had just spent my last day on earth. I’d rather be dead in a rice paddy then alive in a hospital to find out that one of my men died because I wasn’t there.”  

The following day, McCloughan was wounded a second time by small arms fire and shrapnel from a rocket propelled grenade while rendering aid to two soldiers in an open rice paddy.  

“I drug them both at the same time into the trench line. I looked up on top of the berm and there were two North Vietnamese soldiers in that tree just a few feet away, looking me right in the eye,” he said.  

 On this day, the 23-year-old McCloughan, again with complete disregard for his life, went into the crossfire numerous times throughout the battle to extract wounded soldiers, while also fighting the enemy.   
 
During the early morning hours of May 15, McCloughan knocked out a rocket propelled grenade position with a grenade, fought and eliminated enemy soldiers, treated numerous casualties, kept two critically wounded soldiers alive during the night, and organized the dead and wounded for evacuation at daylight.  

Jim McCloughan seen in front of the Vietnam Regional Exchange Snack Shop in 1969. The Medal of Honor recipient is the keynote speaker at this year's Veterans Day Breakfast at The War Memorial.

“It’s not about the medal, but the action that has produced the medal,” McCloughan said in response to what the Medal of Honor means to him. “A lot of recipients call it a two-edged sword. It’s a humbling honor to receive it. I received it for 89 guys who fought in that battle.”  

Speaking more about the medal, McCloughan shares that his life changed in a big way going from a Vietnam War veteran, to a Medal of Honor recipient from the Vietnam War. 

“Your life changes completely. I retired from teaching and coaching in 2008, but did not retire from officiating high school wrestling until March of the year that I received the medal in July,” he said. “I really never have retired.” 

In a White House ceremony on July 31, 2017, McCloughan was presented the Medal of Honor by President Donald Trump. The ceremony was attended by members of his family, eight other Medal of Honor recipients, and 10 soldiers who served with McCloughan during that epic battle, five of whom McCloughan personally saved. 

McCloughan was drafted into the Army in August 1968 at the age of 22. At the end of basic training, he received orders to go to Fort Sam Houston Texas to become a combat medic. McCloughan cites that he was the only one of 250 in his graduating basic training class to go to Fort Sam Houston. The reason? When he was studying at Olivet College, he took courses in kinesiology, physiology, anatomy, first aid, and advanced first aid. That prior training gave McCloughan an advantage to be a medic.  

Among other responsibilities, McCloughan has served as the Vice President of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, chair of the Society’s Character Development Program, plus serves as chair of the Society’s Citizen Awards committee. He and his wife, Chérie have four adult children, seven grandchildren, and two standard poodles. 

For the 2026 Congressional Medal of Honor Society Convention in Detroit, McCloughan will serve as the liaison. 

To register for Veterans Day Breakfast, click here.