[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 24 (Monday, February 10, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S849]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               REMEMBERING CAPTAIN JOHN JAMES McGINTY III

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today with a heavy heart to 
report some sad news to my colleagues. John James McGinty III--raised 
in my hometown of Louisville, KY--succumbed to bone cancer on Friday, 
January 17, after 73 years of life. Although his wife Elaine passed in 
1991, he is survived by his sons Michael and John IV. Mr. McGinty was a 
veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps who received the Medal of Honor for 
his exemplary record of valor in the Vietnam War. Our country owes him, 
as we do all of our veterans, an unimaginable debt of gratitude for his 
service.
  John J. McGinty III was born to John and Eve McGinty on January 21, 
1940, in Boston, MA. The family soon moved to Louisville, where John 
completed grammar school and began high school. The call to serve his 
country, however, rang more loudly and clearly than the school bell. 
After a year and a half, he dropped out and enlisted in the Marine 
Corps Reserves in February 1957.
  John enlisted in the regular Marine Corps the following year. He 
served as a drill instructor and a brig officer until 1966, when he 
volunteered for duty in Vietnam. In June of that year he took part in 
Operation Hastings, during which his service to his country would 
extend above and beyond the typical call of duty. Three days into the 
operation, McGinty's company, reduced to a strength of 100 men, was 
ordered to withdraw. On July 18, Sergeant McGinty's platoon was 
providing rear security for the withdrawal when they were attacked by 
what was estimated to be 1,000 North Vietnamese soldiers.
  Amidst the chaos of the attack, two squads from his platoon were cut 
off and nearly surrounded. Sergeant McGinty rushed through the jungle 
under a hail of gunfire to find his men in dire straits--20 were 
wounded and their medical corpsman had been killed. Showing little 
regard for his own shrapnel wounds to his leg, back, and left eye, 
Sergeant McGinty reloaded the wounded men's weapons and, according to 
his Medal of Honor citation, ``directed their fire upon the enemy.'' 
When the attackers inched closer and closer to his men, Sergeant 
McGinty drew his .45-caliber pistol and killed five enemy soldiers at 
point-blank range. Then, with enemies at all sides and still taking 
heavy gunfire, he accurately called in naval airstrikes to within 50 
yards of his position.
  His actions that day were consistent with the highest traditions of 
the United States Marine Corps, and at a White House ceremony on March 
12, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson bestowed upon then-Second Lieutenant 
McGinty the Medal of Honor.
  Although he retired from the Marine Corps as a captain in 1976, Mr. 
McGinty continued to work to better the lives of America's service men 
and women. He worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs in various 
capacities, and along with fellow veterans, made several trips to Iraq 
and Afghanistan to visit with American troops. He would, however, stop 
wearing his Medal of Honor after becoming a born-again Christian in the 
early 1980s. His son Michael McGinty explains, ``He didn't have a 
problem with the honor.'' Rather, it was the medal's depiction of the 
Roman goddess Minerva that ran contrary to his deeply held belief that 
the reason he was still alive is the one true God.
  Captain McGinty was modest about his own heroic actions. His son 
Michael has said, ``My father used to say that he did what any Marine 
sergeant would have done in that situation.'' There can be no doubt, 
with his record of valor, however, that CAPT John James McGinty III is 
indeed a hero, and America has lost a hero with his passing. John's 
service to his country, both as a U.S. Marine and as a private citizen, 
is deserving of the highest praise and respect of this body. Thus, I 
ask my U.S. Senate colleagues to join me in honoring and mourning this 
fallen soldier with roots in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. All 
Kentuckians, and all Americans, should be honored that he fought to 
protect us, and grateful for his service and sacrifice.

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