Rank: Private First Class
Unit: Headquarters & Headquarters Troop, 3rd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
MOS: 91B – Medical Specialist
Awards: Bronze Star Medal with Valor Device, Purple Heart Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Unit awards: Valorous Unit Award, Meritorious Unit Citation, Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm device
Note: Medic attached to L Troop, 3/11 ACR
Enlisted by: Selected Service
Date of birth: 9-Feb-1947
Hometown: Lawton, Oklahoma
Marital status: Never Married
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Entered service: 25-Aug-1966
Start of tour: 13-Feb-1967
Incident date: 21-Jul-1967
Date of casualty: 21-Jul-1967
Age at death: 20
Cause of death: Hostile, died. Grenade. Multiple fragmentation wounds.
Douglas Wayne Hill died as a result of metal fragment wounds received while a passenger in a military convoy.
Fourteen Blackhorse troopers died in this incident:
CPT William Forman Abernethy
PFC James Francis Bean
PFC John Joseph Campa
PFC Roosevelt C. Curley
SP4 Lawrence Michael Dawson
PFC George Arthur Foster
PVT Thomas Francis Ganion
PFC Douglas Wayne Hill
PFC Frank Daniel Leal
PFC Gary Alfred McLennan
PFC Billy Gene Rodgers
SP4 Richard James Schutz
1LT Ponder Ray Sims
PFC James Lemar Whitfield
Location of fatality: Long Khanh, South Vietnam, YT 430 308
Place of interment: Sunset Memorial Gardens, Lawton, Oklahoma, USA
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BRONZE STAR MEDAL
WITH VALOR DEVICE
POSTHUMOUS
PRIVATE FIRST CLASS DOUGLAS WAYNE HILL
21 JULY 1967
HEADQUARTERS AND HEADQUARTERS TROOP, 3rd SQUADRON
11TH ARMORED CAVALRY REGIMENT
Private First Class Hill distinguished himself by valorous actions on 21 July 1967 while participating in a search and secure mission near Xa Binh Hoa Province, Republic of Vietnam. As the lead troop was entering its assigned sector of security, it came under heavy antitank and automatic weapons fire from an undetermined number of Viet Cong. Reacting instantly, Private Hill immediately leaped from his vehicle and, although fully exposed to the unrelenting enemy fire, sprinted to a nearby track that had already been hit and immobilized. When efforts to attract the attention of the driver in order to lower the rear ramp failed, he fearlessly mounted the vehicle in full view of the Viet Cong and personally evacuated the stricken driver and vehicle commander. When he had reached the relative safety of a nearby ditch, he valiantly assured that the men were provided medical attention and courageously ran back into the lethal volley of Viet Cong fire. Seeing his own track hit by recoilless rifle fire, Private Hill sprinted across the bullet-ridden field to aid his men. Putting the wounded driver on hsi shoulders, he started for the relative safety of the ditch, but was mortally wounded by enemy automatic weapons fire. Private First Class Hill’s courage and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest tradition of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.
Headquarters, 9th Infantry Division General Orders No. 3859 (4 August 1967)