Born on February 14, 1931, in
Washington, D.C., Liteky joined the Army from
Fort Hamilton, New York. He served in
South Vietnam as a
captain and
chaplain in Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the
199th Light Infantry Brigade. On December 6, 1967, near Phuoc Lac in South Vietnam's
Biên Hòa Province, he was accompanying Company A, 4th Battalion,
12th Infantry Regiment, 199th Light Infantry Brigade, on a
search and destroy mission when they came under heavy fire from a numerically superior enemy force. Seeing two wounded men lying from an enemy machine gun, Liteky shielded them with his body and, once the volume of fire had sufficiently decreased, dragged them to the relative safety of a helicopter landing zone. Although wounded in the neck and foot, he continued to expose himself to hostile fire in order to rescue more of the wounded and administer
last rites to the dying. When the landing zone came under fire, he stood in the open and directed the
medical evacuation helicopters in and out of the area. After the wounded had been evacuated, he returned to the perimeter to encourage the remaining soldiers until Company A was relieved the next morning. Liteky carried a total of 20 soldiers to safety during the battle. For these actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. == Activism ==