Rank: Specialist 4
Unit: K Troop, 3rd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
MOS: 11D – Armor Reconnaissance Specialist
Awards: Bronze Star Medal with Valor Device, Purple Heart Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Badges: Combat Infantryman Badge
Unit awards: Meritorious Unit Citation, Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm device
Start of tour: 23-Aug-1966
Note: M-113A1, ACAV, K-18
Enlisted by: Selected Service
Date of birth: 29-Jun-1946
Hometown: Meridian, Mississippi
Marital status: Never Married
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Entered service: 1-Nov-1965
Start of tour: 23-Aug-1966
Incident date: 21-May-1967
Date of casualty: 21-May-1967
Age at death: 20
Cause of death: Hostile, died. Grenade. Multiple fragmentation wounds.
Henry David McInnis was a passenger in a military vehicle on convoy escort operation when hostile force was engaged in firefight.
Seventeen Blackhorse troopers died in this incident:
SP5 William Phillip Centers Jr
SGT Eugene Harold Dickinson
PVT Jerry Lee Houser
SP4 Toler Lee Hutchins Jr
SP4 Phillip Earl Ireland
SSG James Albert Jackson
SGT Alfred Lee
PFC Patrick Michael Loisel
SP4 Henry David McInnis
SP4 James David McWhorter
SP4 Anthony Wilfred Roybal
PFC Rodolfo Andres Saenz
SSG Walter Stephen Simpson
PFC William Charles Stanley
SP4 James Thomas Steighner
SP4 Dwight Elmer Timberlake
SP4 Larry Allen Williamson
Location of fatality: Long Khanh, South Vietnam, YT 564 054
Place of interment: Coker Chapel Cemetery, Mississippi, USA
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BRONZE STAR MEDAL
WITH VALOR DEVICE
POSTHUMOUS
SPECIALIST FOUR HENRY DAVID McINNIS
21 MAY 1967
K TROOP, 3rd SQUADRON
11TH ARMORED CAVALRY REGIMENT
Specialist Four McInnis distinguished himself by valorous actions on 21 May 1967, while serving as driver of an Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicle during a fierce encounter with the enemy on route 1 near Soui Cat, Vietnam. As the armored convoy moved down a narrow road bordered on both sides with brush and slight vegetation, it suddenly came under a murderous volume of recoilless rifle and automatic weapons fire from a numerically superior Viet Cong force. Specialist McInnis quickly maneuvered his vehicle into a tactical position and courageously exposed himself to the withering barrage of hostile fire as he placed accurate and effective counter-fire upon the insurgent forces. As the battle gained intensity, Specialist McInnis’ vehicle was hit by several anti-tank rounds. Although wounded and in great pain, Specialist McInnis bravely aided his crew by supplying ammunition for their automatic weapons and personally continuing to fire on the attacking Viet Cong force. In the final moments of the encounter with the hostile force, Specialist McInnis was mortally wounded. Specialist Four McInnis, personal bravery and devotion to duty were it keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.
Headquarters, 9th Infantry Division General Orders No. 1937 (27 June 1967)