A Selfless Hero: SGT John Phillip Baca

Welcome to the Medal of Honor podcast, brought to you in partnership with the National Medal of Honor Museum. I’m Ken Harbaugh. In each episode, we’ll learn about a different service member who has distinguished him or herself through an act of valor.

John Phillip Baca was born on January 10th, 1949 in Providence Rhode Island. Baca went to high school in Stockton, California, often skipping class to visit the beach and get into trouble. He had multiple visits to juvenile hall, but graduated in 1967.

Two years after graduation, at 20 years old Baca was drafted into the army. In hindsight, Baca said this was the best thing that could have happened to him, because otherwise he probably would have ended up spending time in jail. Baca spent 16 weeks at basic training and then was deployed to Vietnam.

After a brief stint as a mortarman, then Specialist Fourth Class Baca was assigned to a recoilless rifle team. There he was stuck with the M67, a weapon that fired large anti-personnel or anti-tank rounds, and could be fired from the shoulder.

On February 10th, 1970, Baca and his company were on mission near Quan Loi and had settled in for the night. Suddenly an explosion in the distance jolted Baca and his comrades awake. It was the sound of a tripwire they had set to alert them of enemies near their position, and they could hear the commotion it caused amongst the NVA.

An initial group left to respond to the disturbance, and quickly drew fire from the enemy recon team. Baca and the rest of his platoon weren’t far behind. They joined up with their comrades, and Baca led them through heavy fire to establish a firing position on the concealed enemy. Then, one nearby friendly soldier was shot in the face. Bleeding profusely, he ran towards the safety of the position held by Baca’s platoon. As he ran by, he bumped Baca, who was just about to fire his M67, knocking the weapon off his shoulder. This caused Baca to see an unnoticed enemy grenade near his best friend and fellow soldier, Art. Baca shouted, alerting his platoon of the danger, and instinctively pushed Art out of the way. He then placed the top of his steel helmet on his stomach and jumped on the grenade. Pinned underneath the helmet, the grenade exploded. The helmet contained most of the shrapnel, and Baca absorbed most of the concussion with his body. Bleeding from the stomach and on the verge of death, Baca was dragged to a safer position by his lieutenant and evac’d to a triage unit. There, he hemorrhaged and passed out. Baca eventually made a full recovery.

On June 15th 1971, Sergeant John Phillip Baca was awarded the Medal of Honor for his selfless action. Thanks to him, Art and seven other men were saved from serious injury or death.

The Medal of Honor podcast is a production of Evergreen Podcasts.

Nathan Corson is our executive producer and mixing engineer, Declan Rohrs is our associate producer, scriptwriter, and recording engineer, and I’m Ken Harbaugh.

We are proud to support the National Medal of Honor Museum. To learn more, and to support their mission, go to mohmuseum.org. Thanks for listening.