Word Celebrity Blog

Joe Ronnie Hooper

Joe Ronnie Hooper was born on August 8, 1938 in Piedmont, South Carolina. His family moved when he was a child to Moses Lake, Washington where he attended Moses Lake High School.

The catlike, strawberry-haired 6-footer and former Washington state football scoring champ at Moses Lake High School had enlisted at age 19 because he admired the military.

Joe Hooper enlisted in the United States Navy in December 1956. After attending Basic Training at San Diego, California, he served as an Airman aboard USS Wasp and USS Hancock. He was discharged in July 1959, shortly after being promoted to Petty Officer 3rd Class.

Then Joe Hooper reenlisted in the United States Army in May 1960 as a Private First Class and attended Basic Training at Fort Ord, California. After graduating he volunteered for Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia and then was assigned to Company C, 1/327th Airborne Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and was promoted to corporal during his assignment.

He then served a tour of duty in Korea with the 20th Infantry Regiment in October 1961 and shortly after arriving he was promoted to sergeant and was made a Squad Leader. He left Korea in November 1963 and was assigned to the 2nd Armored Division at Fort Hood, Texas for a year as a Squad Leader and then became a Squad Leader with Company D, 2/502nd Infantry, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

























He was promoted to staff sergeant in September 1966 and volunteered for service in Vietnam. Instead he was assigned as Platoon Sergeant in Panama with the 508th Infantry Regiment, first with HQ Company and later with Company B.

Hooper couldn’t stay out of trouble and suffered several Article 15 hearings, being reduced to Corporal in July 1967. He was promoted once again to Sergeant in October 1967 and was assigned to Company D, 2/501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell and deployed with the division to Vietnam in December as a Squad Leader. He returned from Vietnam and was discharged in June 1968.

Staff Sergeant Joe Hooper, 29, of the 501st Airborne Infantry, killed at least 115 of the enemy – 24 of them in a six-hour firefight, lobbing grenades into Viet Cong bunkers and wading through withering machine-gun fire to repeatedly rescue wounded American soldiers. Fourteen out of 189 survived. After treatment for his wounds, Hooper broke out of the hospital to return to his unit. Being part American Indian, he said he could "smell out" the enemy, and thought he was born to go to Vietnam.






















Joe Hooper receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Richard Nixon



On March 7, 1969, President Nixon, in his first Medal of Honor presentation in the East Room of the White House, recognized Hooper, whom the Army had commissioned a second lieutenant, and two other soldiers. Then Hooper asked for special permission to return to Vietnam.







































No man in the history of American international combat is reputed to have received more decorations than one Staff Sergeant Joe R. Hooper, from Moses Lake, Washington.

He was wined and dined after his return from combat, even making it to Johnny Carson's famed couch one time. After that, one of the greatest heroes in American combat was forgotten, as were many of his more anonymous fellow soldiers who served in Vietnam.

He reenlisted in the Army in September and served as a Public Relations Specialist. From July 1969 to August 1970 he served as a Platoon Sergeant with the 5th Infantry Regiment in Panama. He managed to finagle a second tour in Vietnam. From April to June 1970 he served as a Pathfinder with the 101st Aviation Group, 101st Airborne Division and from June to December 1970 he served as a Platoon Sergeant with Company A, 2/327th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile).


























In December 1970 he received a direct commission to Second Lieutenant and served as a Platoon Leader with A Company 2/501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile)until April 1971. Upon his return to the United States he attended the Infantry Officer Basic Course at Fort Benning and was then assigned as an instructor at Fort Polk, Louisiana

Hooper came home, and if he had any feeling of invincibility, the thought evaporated May 28, 1971, when actor Audie Murphy, a Medal of Honor recipient and the most highly decorated soldier of World War II, died in a plane crash in Virginia. Hooper was a pallbearer.























Faye and Joe Hooper in 1971.


Three weeks later, on June 13, Joe and Faye Hooper married in California. The couple traveled extensively because of Hooper's status as a war hero.

Despite wanting to serve twenty years Hooper was forcibly retired in February 1974 as a First Lieutenant, mainly due to the fact that he barely had a GED and had taken only a handful of college courses.

As soon as he was released from Active Duty he joined the 12th Special Forces Group (Airborne), an Army Reserve unit stationed in Washington state, as a Company Executive Officer. In February 1976 he transferred to the 104th Division (Training Support) also stationed in Washington. He was promoted to Captain in March 1977. He attended drills only intermittently and was separated from the service in September 1978.


























During two tours of duty with Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, he was awarded the Medal of Honor (February 21, 1968 outside of Hue), two Silver Stars for gallantry, 6 Bronze Stars for heroism, 8 Purple Hearts, and the Combat Infantryman Badge.

After his second tour, Hooper went to Fort Polk, La., where he was in charge of basic trainees. But he didn't fit in well with the stateside version of the Army, and he resigned his commission. He returned to Yakima, but found civilian life a bit boring.

"When you retire from guerrilla fighting, it is not something you just walk away from without losing some part of you," he said. "In those days, you lived, almost thrived, on fear. Now there is no fear in my life, and I admit I'm a little flat."

Joe was disillusioned by the Army and its lack of discipline. He believed that discipline and training were what paid off in combat.

Joe's wife said he cried that day as he watched the news films showing the last of the American forces being pulled out of Vietnam. He told her all those lives and all those broken bodies had been wasted. He said we had accomplished nothing.

The boredom led to drinking, and that led to other trouble. "Joe was a hell raiser," a friend said, "and he was fast becoming an alcoholic."

But the Medal of Honor society protects its own, and Hooper was brought to Seattle where he got a job with the Veterans Administration as a counselor. He did that for a few years before he became bored again, and wanted to get back into raising horses as he had in Eastern Washington.

Joe R. Hooper was a good soldier fighting an unpopular war. Following orders abroad while unrest reigned at home. Doing his job the best he could in the Vietnamese jungle while he and others like him were being reviled and demonized in Main Street America.

Hooper knew that heroes from other wars would be remembered long after him. In 1977, Hooper summed up his fleeting fame and the war in Vietnam.

“It’s sort of like the war itself,” he said. “So many people wanted to forget it when I was fighting it. Why would they want to remember us now?”

Joe made many speeches about his combat experiences. If someone asked, he would tell them about the day he won The Medal of Honor, "I had no choice that day, " Joe would say, "I did what I had to do."

That was Joe Hooper's philosophy in life. You do what you have to do at the time and face tomnorrow when it arrives.

War had been Joe's best moments and his worst. Visions of whistling bullets, airborne body parts, screams of the wounded – and that was a good day for Joe Hooper. He would suddenly bolt upward in his Seattle bed, sweating booze from the night before. He did this very often.


























Those earlier appearances on national TV, the possibility of a Hollywood biopic, hanging out with Bob Hope and several presidents – that just churned him up more inside.

He had served a total of two tours of duty in Vietnam.

He had been  presented with the Medal of Honor by President Richard Nixon at the White House on March 7, 1969. His other decorations included two Silver Stars (one of them which began as a recommendation for a second Medal of Honor), six Bronze Stars and eight Purple Hearts.

 Like others of his era, he arrived home to accusations of being a baby killer. But that's not what eventually soured him on Vietnam. "At high schools, when I speak, the question kids most often asked me was, 'Would you do it again?'" I would answer "I would, the reason being, I thought my abilities helped save lives.  But, now I would tell my children, if [we] were to do this over, 'Go to Canada. Don't fight a war you can't win.'"

Joe's friends believe that he became distressed by the anti-war politics of the time and took to excessive drinking which contributed to his death.

Joe was in Louisville, Kentucky for the running of the Kentucky Derby, when he died on May 5,1979. He was found in his hotel room. He was 40 years old. He died a quiet death from a cerebral hemorrage while sleeping.


























Just five years after his military service, Captain Hooper was buried in Section 46 of Arlington National Cemetery, adjacent to the Memorial Amphitheater.

The VA eventually was reluctantly persuaded to name a wing of its medical center on Beacon Hill after him, and the Army's reserve center in Bothell now bears his name.

























Captain Joe R. Hooper holds a place with Sgt. Alvin York and Capt. Audie Murphy as one of the most decorated soldiers in army history. He remains the most decorated soldier of the Vietnam war.

Joe Hooper's death was said to be from natural causes. He was a casualty of war.

Look at oure history – this is a country made by war on the backs of vets who have never, ever been treated as promised. "If we can't save our heroes, who can we save?"



Awards and decorations

During the course of his 17 years of military service, Captain Joe Ronnie Hooper received 37 citations, including the Medal of Honor, the Silver Star with oak leaf cluster (one Silver Star citation began as a recommendation for a second Medal of Honor), the Bronze Star with combat distinguishing device (or "V") and 5 oak leaf clusters, the Purple Heart with 7 oak leaf clusters, the Air Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the Navy Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Navy Expert Pistol Shot Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, the Vietnam Gallantry Cross and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal. Captain Hooper also was awarded the Army Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon, The Republic of Vietnam Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon, the Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation Ribbon with Palm and the Republic of Vietnam Civil Actions Unit Citation Ribbon with Palm. Captain Hooper also held the Combat Infantryman Badge, Master Parachutist Badge and Republic of Vietnam Parachutist Badge.
























Medal of Honor citation



Rank and organization:
Staff Sergeant,
U.S. Army, Company D, 2d Battalion (Airborne),
501st Infantry,
101st Airborne Division.

Place and date:
Near Hue, Republic of Vietnam,
February 21, 1968.

Entered service at:
Los Angeles, Calif.

Born:
August 8, 1938,
Piedmont, S.C.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Staff Sergeant (then Sgt.) Hooper, U.S. Army, distinguished himself while serving as squad leader with Company D. Company D was assaulting a heavily defended enemy position along a river bank when it encountered a withering hail of fire from rockets, machine guns and automatic weapons. S/Sgt. Hooper rallied several men and stormed across the river, overrunning several bunkers on the opposite shore. Thus inspired, the rest of the company moved to the attack. With utter disregard for his own safety, he moved out under the intense fire again and pulled back the wounded, moving them to safety. During this act S/Sgt. Hooper was seriously wounded, but he refused medical aid and returned to his men. With the relentless enemy fire disrupting the attack, he single-handedly stormed 3 enemy bunkers, destroying them with hand grenade and rifle fire, and shot 2 enemy soldiers who had attacked and wounded the Chaplain. Leading his men forward in a sweep of the area, S/Sgt. Hooper destroyed 3 buildings housing enemy riflemen. At this point he was attacked by a North Vietnamese officer whom he fatally wounded with his bayonet. Finding his men under heavy fire from a house to the front, he proceeded alone to the building, killing its occupants with rifle fire and grenades. By now his initial body wound had been compounded by grenade fragments, yet despite the multiple wounds and loss of blood, he continued to lead his men against the intense enemy fire. As his squad reached the final line of enemy resistance, it received devastating fire from 4 bunkers in line on its left flank. S/Sgt. Hooper gathered several hand grenades and raced down a small trench which ran the length of the bunker line, tossing grenades into each bunker as he passed by, killing all but 2 of the occupants. With these positions destroyed, he concentrated on the last bunkers facing his men, destroying the first with an incendiary grenade and neutralizing 2 more by rifle fire. He then raced across an open field, still under enemy fire, to rescue a wounded man who was trapped in a trench. Upon reaching the man, he was faced by an armed enemy soldier whom he killed with a pistol. Moving his comrade to safety and returning to his men, he neutralized the final pocket of enemy resistance by fatally wounding 3 North Vietnamese officers with rifle fire. S/Sgt. Hooper then established a final line and reorganized his men, not accepting treatment until this was accomplished and not consenting to evacuation until the following morning.

His supreme valor, inspiring leadership and heroic self-sacrifice were directly responsible for the company's success and provided a lasting example in personal courage for every man on the field. S/Sgt. Hooper's actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the U.S. Army.



Since the mid-1990s, his adoptive hometown in the middle of Washington state has a plaque with his name on it in the middle of McCosh Park, and in the early 1980s, the Veterans' Medical Center in Seattle named its wing reserved for patients with substance addiction problems after him.

For some of Hooper's friends and fellow soldiers, however, this latter tribute feels like a slap in the face, given that the brave South Carolinian born in 1939 died an alcoholic. An added slight if one considers that the VA Hospital in Murfreesboro, Tenn., is named after York, and the VA Hospital in San Antonio is named after Murphy.


George Washington - "The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation."