By midday, the onslaught had grown overwhelmingly. Cavaiani directed the helicopter evacuation of most of his command, but he remained behind. The North Vietnamese continued their attack and Cavaiani continued to fight back, finally telling the remaining men to escape.
Badly wounded, he took cover in a bunker along with Sgt. John Jones. they killed the first two North Vietnamese soldiers to enter. A grenade was tossed in and Jones exited and was mortally shot. Cavaiani played dead and survived a fire in the bunker before being captured. he was interned in a North Vietnamese prison until his release in 1973.
The following year, he received the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Gerald Ford
He was a war baby of World War II, being born as Jon Robert Lemmons on August 2, 1943, in England, the son of an American father and English mother. He came to California as a boy and took his stepfather's name.
Hero With an Interesting Background.
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