Rank: Staff Sergeant
Unit: Howitzer Battery, 3rd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
MOS: 13B – Cannon Crewmember
Awards: Silver Star, Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Unit awards: Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm device
Enlisted by: Selected Service
Date of birth: 16-Dec-1944
Hometown: Libby, Montana
Marital status: Married to Helen M. Rambo, one daughter
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Entered service: 17-Sep-1968
Start of tour: 19-Aug-1969
Incident date: 26-Nov-1969
Date of casualty: 26-Nov-1969
Age at death: 24
Cause of death: Hostile, died. Burns/Smoke Inhalation. Burns.
Arthur John Rambo 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.
Four Blackhorse troopers died as a result of this incident:
SP4 Jon Anthony Allen
SP4 Johnny Carl Jones
SSG Arthur John Rambo
SP4 Barry Frank Scott
Location of fatality: Tay Ninh, South Vietnam, XT 545 846
Place of interment: Libby Cemetery, Libby, Montana, USA
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SILVER STAR
POSTHUMOUS
SERGEANT ARTHUR JOHN RAMBO
26 NOVEMBER 1969
HOWITZER BATTERY, 3rd SQUADRON
11TH ARMORED CAVALRY REGIMENT
Sergeant Rambo distinguished himself by gallantry in action while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force on 26 November 1969 while serving as an artilleryman with the Howitzer Battery, 3d Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, in the Republic of Vietnam. On this date he was located at the squadron command post when it suddenly came under an intense mortar and ground attack from a North Vietnamese Army force. In the initial moments of the firefight, a rocket propelled grenade slammed into a cargo vehicle next to him, and the vehicle erupted n explosions and fire. Sergeant Rambo immediately began alerting the personnel in the area and directing them away from the area. He then crawled to the fiercely burning vehicle and attempted to drive it out of the area. Suddenly another grenade hit the vehicle and he was thrown to the ground. Undaunted, he crawled to a self-propelled howitzer and started the engine. As he began driving out of the area, the vehicle was hit by yet another rocket propelled grenade and he was fatally injured in the ensuing fire and explosions. Sergeant Rambo’s heroic 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, II Field Force Vietnam, General Orders No. 4896 (23 December 1969)