Rank: First Lieutenant
Unit: D Company, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
MOS: 1203 – Tank Unit Commander
Awards: Bronze Star Medal with Valor Device, Purple Heart Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Unit awards: Presidential Unit Citation, Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm device
Start of tour: 14-May-1968
Enlisted by: Reserve
Date of birth: 12-Oct-1944
Hometown: South Euclid, Ohio
Marital status: Married to Joyce E. Bodnar
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Incident date: 15-Aug-1968
Date of casualty: 15-Aug-1968
Age at death: 23
Cause of death: Hostile, Died. Grenade. Multiple fragmentation wounds. Individual died from wounds received while commander of tank on road march when came under hostile attack.
Location of fatality: Long Khanh, South Vietnam
Place of interment: All Souls Cemetery, Chardon, Ohio, USA
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BRONZE STAR MEDAL
WITH VALOR DEVICE
POSTHUMOUS
FIRST LIEUTENANT GEORGE JOSEPH BODNAR, ARMOR
15 AUGUT 1968
D COMPANY, 1st SQUADRON
11TH ARMORED CAVALRY REGIMENT
First Lieutenant Bodnar distinguished himself by heroism in connection with military operations against a hostile force on 15 August 1968 while serving with Company D, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, in the Republic of Vietnam. On this date, two tank platoons from Company D and one Engineering Section were conducting a clearing operation on the road to Gia Ray. Suddenly the friendly force was engaged by an unknown-size North Vietnamese Army unit and Lieutenant Bodnar’s vehicle received a direct hit from an antitank rocket which left the turret without power. With a total disregard for his own safety in the face of the intense volume of hostile small arms, automatic weapons and antitank rocket fire, Lieutenant Bodnar manned the exterior-mounted .50 caliber machine gun, directing highly accurate suppressive fire upon the hostile forces. Despite the maneuver limitations imposed on him by the barbed wire on the left side of the road and the swamp on the right side, Lieutenant Bodnar skillfully directed his vehicle to the aid of the lead tank which had been disabled by the enemy. Lieutenant Bodnar remained in his fully exposed position, firing the machine gun until suddenly his vehicle received another direct hit from an antitank rocket, wounding him. Lieutenant Bodnar’s unwavering devotion to duty and great personal courage while under hostile fire were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.
Headquarters, II Field Force Vietnam General Orders No. 1015 (26 August 1968)