Rank: First Lieutenant
Unit: A Troop, 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, Valorous Unit Award, Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm device
Enlisted by: Reserve
Date of birth: 2-Mar-1946
Hometown: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Marital status: Never Married
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Entered service: 2-Jun-1968
Start of tour: 18-Feb-1970
Incident date: 19-Jun-1970
Date of casualty: 19-Jun-1970
Age at death: 24
Cause of death: Hostile, died. Small Arms Fire. Gun or small arms fire.
Robert Knapp Henderson Jr was killed while at a night defensive position when the area came under attack by a hostile force. / At night defensive position (NDP). Engaged hostile force in firefight.
Three Blackhorse troopers died in this incident:
SP4 Francis Ray Addis
1LT Robert Knapp Henderson Jr
SP4 Larry Robert Ladd
Location of fatality: Cambodia, XU 453 013
Place of interment: Memorial Park Cemetery, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
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SILVER STAR
FIRST LIEUTENANT ROBERT KNAPP HENDERSON JR, ARMOR
26 MARCH 1970
A TROOP, 1st SQUADRON
11TH ARMORED CAVALRY REGIMENT
For gallantry in action while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force on 26 March 1970. Lieutenant Henderson was serving as a platoon leader with Troop A, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, in the Republic of Vietnam. On this date, Troop A and an attached infantry company were acting as a reactionary force for a company of infantryman trapped northwest of fire support base Illingsworth. As Troop A and the attached infantry company entered the contact area, they immediately shielded the survivors of the infantry company and began to receive intense rocket-propelled grenade, small arms and automatic weapons fire from two companies of North Vietnamese soldiers entrenched in a bunker complex. One hour after the assault began, a rocket-propelled grenade struck the tank of Lieutenant Henderson’s platoon sergeant, killing the sergeant and destroying the vehicle. Although deprived of his principal subordinate and his firepower, Lieutenant Henderson courageously remained in command, continuing to direct his troopers in concentrating suppressive fire against a powerful enemy barrage of rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons. As the firefight continued, Lieutenant Henderson dismounted to direct the salvaging of critical equipment from a destroyed vehicle. Repeatedly exposing himself to hostile fire, he was painfully wounded in the leg but declined to be treated. Throughout the battle, his valor was instrumental in his platoon’s leading all of Troop A in the advance against the entrenched enemy. Lieutenant Henderson’s actions 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, Department of the Army General Orders No. (2006)