Editor’s note: The headline and story were updated to reflect that Robert Howard is the only soldier nominated three times for the Medal of Honor. Marine Dan Daly also was nominated three times and received the honor for his actions during the Haitian Campaign in 1915.

Barely more than two years after Green Beret Robert Howard’s heroic attempt to retrieve a severely injured lieutenant from enemy-controlled territory during the Vietnam War, he stood before President Richard Nixon at the White House. As Howard was about to receive the Medal of Honor on March 2, 1971, he felt nervous and weak-kneed. He looked pale, prompting a concerned Nixon to ask whether he was OK.

“I said, ‘Sir, I don’t know if I’m going to faint or not, but I apologize for my looks,’” Howard recounted in an interview with the Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s Living History project. “‘I think my heart stopped beating.’”

That moment of levity aside, Howard remained upright long enough for Nixon to place the prized medal around his neck. As of March 2025, Howard is the only soldier among the 3,547 Medal of Honor recipients to be nominated for the United States’ top military honor on three separate occasions.

Born in Alabama in 1939, Howard left home shortly after receiving his high school diploma. Intent on following a path that his father and four of his uncles — all of whom became Army paratroopers — forged, Howard enlisted in the military in 1956. Nearly a decade later, he deployed with the 101st Airborne Division, his father’s old unit, during the Vietnam War, but the course of his military career changed forever after he switched to the Special Forces, earning his Ranger tab and eventually becoming a Green Beret.

The new role suited Howard extremely well, and it wasn’t long before he showed he could meet the Special Forces’ rigorous standards. During a 13-month period in the late 1960s, Howard’s actions resulted in three Medal of Honor recommendations; the first two were downgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross and Silver Star, respectively, but the third resulted in a different outcome.

On Dec. 30, 1968, Howard — then part of the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces — was on a reconnaissance mission at Kon Tum in south-central Vietnam when his unit learned that the North Vietnamese had captured Allied prisoners of war. As Howard’s platoon landed in hostile territory, a large enemy force attacked, killing three soldiers near him and shooting down a helicopter, he told the CMOHS.

As Howard, then a sergeant first class, scrambled to inform his lieutenant that they were completely surrounded, another ambush broke out. During the skirmish, a grenade obliterated Howard’s weapon, wounding him as blood obscured his vision.

“I can remember seeing red and saying a prayer, hoping I wasn’t blind,” Howard, who was wounded 14 times during five deployments to Vietnam, told the Living History project. “I couldn’t see. I knew I was in a lot of pain, and my hands were hurting. I couldn’t get up, and I really didn’t want to get up anyway because I couldn’t see.”

The Special Forces soldiers’ predicament got worse. Armed with a flamethrower, an enemy fighter aimed the incendiary device at the ambushed troops and held down the trigger, but despite looking directly at Howard, he somehow spared the Green Beret’s life. Amid a blistering hail of gunfire, Howard took advantage of that unexpected reprieve to crawl to 1st Lt. James Jerson. Despite hurting and bleeding hands that compromised his grip, Howard began to drag his 6-foot-4, 200-pound platoon leader to safety as quickly as he could.

In the midst of that perilous, pain-filled journey, a bullet pierced one of Howard’s ammunition pouches, causing several magazines to explode. The blast blew the Green Beret several feet away, temporarily disorienting him. Once Howard regained his bearings, he and another sergeant managed to drag Jerson back to what was left of their scattered platoon.

When told Jerson was unlikely to make it, Howard adamantly refused to accept that outcome.

“‘Make him make it,’” Howard bellowed, according to his CMOHS interview. “‘You keep that lieutenant alive.’”

Howard immediately organized a perimeter, commanding all who were able that they were “going to fight or die” right where they were. He ordered the installation of strobe lights to identify their position and radioed for air support. The next 3½ hours were a testament to Howard’s uncommon bravery and fortitude as he painstakingly crawled to assist wounded soldiers before the lights started to lose their power.

Before they could be rescued, though, the North Vietnamese attacked again. Howard then made possibly the riskiest call of his 36-year military career, ordering the next airstrike to attack his own platoon’s position.

“I remember the fire landing right between my feet and ricochets hitting me in the face,” Howard said. “That’s how intense it was. Then … I could hear the helicopters coming in. I’m still communicating with the sergeant, and I said, ‘You know we might get out of here alive yet.’”

Howard did make it out alive, and true to his selfless nature, he evacuated himself only after the rest of the platoon, either dead or alive, were loaded onto helicopters. With only six of the 37 platoon members surviving the attacks, the scene was somber. Jerson was among the dead, wounding Howard deeper than any of his physical injuries.

“That hurt me worse than being shot up, seeing that lieutenant die,” Howard told the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project.

A loss that heartfelt never truly goes away, and Howard undoubtedly carried it with him as President Nixon hung the Medal of Honor around his neck. After Nixon told the retired colonel that “this great country appreciates you,” Howard recalled why he joined the military in the first place.

“It was so important because my father and all of my uncles died as a result of their service during the Second World War,” said Howard, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2009 at the age of 70. “And so when I received that honor, I felt that I was sharing it with members of my family that had sacrificed their lives. I hold it very dear to my heart.”

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