06/14/2026
On this day, 61 years ago, June 10, 1965, 25-year-old Construction Mechanic Third Class Marvin Glenn Shields fought his final battle.
He was stationed with United States Navy Seabee Team 1104 at the D**g Xoai Special Forces compound in the Republic of Vietnam.
The Seabees operate under the motto "We Build, We Fight", and Shields was about to prove the absolute truth of those words.
A reinforced Viet Cong regiment launched a ferocious and coordinated attack against the compound of Detachment A-342.
The enemy struck the perimeter with heavy weapons, machine guns, and intense small arms fire.
Shields was wounded early in the chaotic assault.
He ignored his injuries and immediately went to work to keep his comrades in the fight.
He hauled heavy boxes of ammunition across the battered compound to resupply his fellow Americans.
Shields returned enemy fire steadily for three unbroken hours.
The Viet Cong then escalated their assault to close range.
They flooded the perimeter with flamethrowers, hand grenades, and a massive volume of rifle fire.
Shields sustained a second severe wound during this brutal surge.
He was bleeding heavily and physically weakened.
Instead of seeking cover, he found a soldier who was more critically wounded than he was.
Shields physically carried the injured man through the hostile fire to a safer position.
He then grabbed his weapon and resumed fighting for another four hours.
A well-placed enemy machine gun emplacement eventually pinned down the entire compound.
The accurate fire was tearing through the American positions and threatening to wipe out the remaining defenders.
The Special Forces commander called for a volunteer to help him take out the gun.
Shields stepped up without hesitation.
He armed himself with a 3.5-inch rocket launcher and moved out of his defensive cover.
The two men advanced directly toward the enemy strongpoint under a relentless hail of bullets.
They fired the rocket launcher and completely destroyed the Viet Cong machine gun emplacement.
This successful strike instantly saved the lives of the remaining men trapped inside the compound.
As they turned to head back to their defensive perimeter, enemy forces unleashed a fresh volley of fire.
Hostile rounds tore into Shields on his way back.
He was mortally wounded by the gunfire.
For his actions at D**g Xoai, President Lyndon B. Johnson posthumously awarded him the Medal of Honor in 1966.
He remains the first and only Navy Seabee to ever receive the nation's highest military decoration.
His legacy was later cemented when the United States Navy commissioned the Knox-class frigate USS Marvin Shields in 1971.
