Vietnam: Operation Medina: The Last Footage Shot by Medal of Honor Recipient Marine Cpl. Perkins
Spotlight: The Last Footage Shot by Medal of Honor Recipient Marine Cpl. Perkins
Perkins enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in April of 1966, was discharged and enlisted in the Regular Marine Corps in July of the same year. He served first as a still picture photographer and then as a motion picture combat photographer after attending the U.S. Army Signal Center Motion Picture Photography School. In July of 1967, Perkins was transferred to the Republic of Vietnam.
On October 12, 1967, Cpl. William Thomas Perkins Jr. was killed during Operation Medina in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam when he flung himself onto a grenade saving three Marines with his actions. Perkins was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by the Marine Corps for his actions.
ONLY COMBAT PHOTOGRAPHER TO RECEIVE MEDAL OF HONOR
William Thomas Perkins, Jr., was born on August 10, 1947 in Rochester, New York. While in elementary school he moved with his family to California where he graduated from high school in Sepulveda, CA, in 1965. He enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in California on April 27, 1966, and was discharged to enlist in the Regular Marine Corps on July 6, 1966. Upon completion of recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, he was promoted to private first class on September 22, 1966, and was transferred to Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, where he underwent individual combat training. From October 1966 to January 1967 he served as a photographer with Headquarters Battalion, Marine CorpsSupply Center, Barstow, CA. He was promoted to Lance Corporal on January 1, 1967 and for the next four months he was a student at the Motion Picture Photography, U.S. Army Signal Center and School, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. In May 1967 he was transferred back to Headquarters Battalion, Barstow. In July 1967 LCPL Perkins served as a photographer with Service Company, Headquarters Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, and was transferred to the Republic of Vietnam. He was promoted to Corporal on August 1, 1967. On October 12, 1967, while serving as a combat photographer with Company C, 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1stMarine Division, during Operation Medina, he hurled himself upon an incoming grenade thereby saving the lives of his comrades at the cost of his own. For this act of valor he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor and is the only combat Marine photographer to have received this award. CPL Perkins is buried in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in San Fernando, CA.
A letter to the editor in the October 2011 issue of the MILITARY OFFICER magazine published by Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) concerning CPL Perkins reads in part: CPL Perkins was killed in action on October 12, 1967. That unit was participating in Operation Medina in the Hai Lang National Forest, QuangTri Province, Republic of Vietnam. CPL Perkins grabbed a North Vietnamese Army grenade that landed among five of us and covered it with his body, sacrificing his life for his fellow Marines (1STLT Jack Ruffer, and LCPLs Dennis Antal, Fred Boxhill and Mike Cole). /s/ MAJ Jack Ruffer, USMC (Ret).
Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)
The story of Thomas Perkins was first brought to our attention by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History where his Medal of Honor was put on display in November 2017 in their exhibit, The Price of Freedom: Americans at War. After learning of his heroics, we set out to locate the footage he shot while serving in Vietnam. Finding footage shot by a specific combat photographer can be tricky and sometimes impossible depending on what branch of the military created the films. Fortunately, the Marine Corps kept track of each photographer and the film they shot making the process easier.
Perkins’ films are part of Record Group 127: Records of the U.S. Marine Corps, Series R: Films of Marine Corps Activities, 1939-1965. Each film has paper records identifying its item number, dates, location, events, and photographer. Using these resources, we were able to locate all of he films shot by Perkins.
The film below is the last footage he shot on 11 and 12 October, 1967 during Operation Medina. It captures the daily life of troops in Vietnam; preparing for their operation with religious services, wading through rivers, dealing with overgrown terrain, and evacuating the injured from a helicopter landing zone which was the site of intense fighting.