A Michigan educator and Medal of Honor recipient's life lessons

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18 hours ago

Jim McCloughan returned from Vietnam, a war in which he didn't intend to fight, and nearly a half-century later, was awarded the Medal of Honor. It brought him public notoriety and an unexpected, heartfelt letter from a stranger.
The message added insight into the difference a person's actions can make to others.
McCloughan's story, which the onetime Army medic is set to tell the evening of June 13 as the featured speaker at a military ball in Detroit to celebrate the Army's 250th birthday, may offer some insight into what it's like to be a soldier and how to face life's challenges.
McCloughan said his speech, which he summarized Wednesday for the Free Press, teaches some Army history and offers lots of statistics, two things you'd expect from a retired educator and coach.
It also may add some perspective to the debates divided Americans are now having about the role of the military at home and abroad, just as they did in the late '60s, when protesters also took to the streets.
"The Army goes and protects freedom and the Constitution wherever they are asked to," he said. "And we're a very compassionate military, because we go places and fight for people who can't fight for their own independence."
In 2017, McCloughan was awarded the Medal of Honor, America's highest military award, as part of an unusual process that involved not just one, but two presidents — Barack Obama and Donald Trump — and an act of Congress.
His Medal of Honor citation describes three days of remarkable courage.
The Army medic ran across an open field under fire to reach and rescue a wounded soldier. Later, that same day, he sprinted toward two soldiers under attack and was hit by shrapnel from an exploding rocket-propelled grenade.
Yet, he still pulled both men to safety — and treated others so they could be evacuated. The next day, he was wounded a second time while offering aid to two soldiers. On the third day of fighting, he continued risking his own life to treat and save soldiers.
Born in South Haven, McCloughan grew up in Bangor, graduated from Bangor High, where he lettered in four sports, and from Olivet College, now the University of Olivet, northeast of Battle Creek.
In 1968, he was in his early 20s and eager to start his life. He had a job lined up as a teacher and coach in South Haven.
Instead, he received a draft notice that sent him to fight in southeast Asia.
School officials, he said, made their best case for a draft exemption: The school already lost seven teachers, and without him to coach, the students would have to go without sports teams. The request was denied.
"My grandpa, he fought in World War I; my dad, in World War II; I had an uncle who was in the service at the end of World War II but didn't battle until Korea," he said. "And, I guess, I settled into the fact that it looks like I'm going to have to change my attitude and plan and get ready to be a soldier."
McCloughan — who is athletic, and just over 5 feet tall — said he committed himself to doing his best to serve his country, to keep his fellow fighting soldiers alive and to come home in one piece.
By the Army's count, he saved 11 lives, including a Vietnamese interpreter.
For his valor, he received several awards — including the Combat Medical Badge, two Purple Hearts and two Bronze Stars for his valor — and after two years in the Army, was allowed to go home.
That's where his war story would have ended, if not, he said, for his lieutenant who doggedly urged the Army to recognize what he did to save other soldiers. The officer did not feel his Bronze Star Medals were enough recognition.
The officer kept pressing and, according to McCloughan, Obama's then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter eventually agreed. The five-year award nomination window, however, had closed.
To allow McCloughan to be awarded the medal, members of Congress, including former U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Ted Cruz of Texas, worked together to pass the statutory changes.
By then, Trump had been elected president.
The new president, in his first awarding of the honor, hung the medal around McCloughan's neck. Trump described the man his platoon called Doc as "a veteran who went above and beyond the call of duty."
More: West Michigan man awarded Medal of Honor for Vietnam War bravery
Since then, the former medic has traveled the state and the nation, extoling the virtues of military service and millions of veterans.
There are now only 61 living Medal of Honor recipients.
McCloughan has thrown out ceremonial first pitches at baseball stadiums, sung for audiences at cemeteries in which veterans are buried, and helped raise money for Gold Star Families, relatives of service members killed while serving.
And if his speech is anything like his Free Press interview, it includes humor and humility.
He joked to the Free Press, for instance, that when he and his wife found out that even generals salute Medal of Honor awardees, he told his wife, Chérie, they should make her a general. She replied: It didn't matter what rank she was, she wasn't going to salute him.
Still, McCloughan said, the medal also belongs to the soldiers who also risked their lives and the many who lost them. And in some ways, it represents how everyone faces adversity, their own version of Vietnam, he called it.
How folks respond can make a difference not just in the moment, but into the future.
To explain, McCloughan told a story about a heartfelt letter he received from a young man whom he had never met, but tracked him down to let him know how he had unknowingly made a big difference in his life.
The letter writer told McCloughan he saved his grandfather.
As a result, the stranger explained that his grandfather could return from the war, and, within a year, give birth to a daughter, who turned out to be his mom. Then, in 1991, the letter writer was born.
And he, too, had just become a parent, with a newborn baby boy.
McCloughan said he added: "This Sunday, I get to celebrate Father's Day because of you."
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Life lessons from Jim McCloughan, a teacher and Medal of Honor recipient