Rank: Specialist 4
Unit: K Troop, 3rd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
Awards: Bronze Star Medal with Valor Device, Purple Heart Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Unit awards: Meritorious Unit Citation, Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm device
Note: M-113A1, ACAV, K-13
Enlisted by: Regular
Date of birth: 18-Jan-1946
Hometown: Saxonburg, Pennsylvania
Marital status: Never Married
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Start of tour: 16-Jan-1967
Incident date: 21-May-1967
Date of casualty: 21-May-1967
Age at death: 21
Cause of death: Hostile, died while missing. Unknown. Burns.
James Thomas Steighner was on a convoy escort mission when engaged in firefight with a hostile force.
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: Saint Mary‘s Cemetery, Herman, Pennsylvania, USA
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BRONZE STAR MEDAL
WITH VALOR DEVICE
POSTHUMOUS
SPECIALIST FOUR JAMES THOMAS STEIGHNER
21 MAY 1967
K TROOP, 3rd SQUADRON
11TH ARMORED CAVALRY REGIMENT
Specialist Four Steighner distinguished himself by valorous actions on 21 May 1967, while serving as Vehicle Commander 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 road bordered on both sides with brush and slight vegetation, it suddenly came under a murderous volume of automatic and recoilless rifle fire from a numerically superior Viet Cong force. Without hesitation and with complete disregard for personal safety, Specialist Steighner coordinated his men and directed suppressive fire on the enemy with his .50 caliber machine gun. During the ensuing battle, Specialist Steighner’s vehicle was hit by anti-tank rockets, causing him to receive fragmentation wounds. Specialist Steighner was wounded a second time by small arms fire but continued to lead his men against the hostile elements. In the final moments of the battle, Specialist Steighner succumbed t him wounds. Spedialist Four Steighner’s personal bravery and devotion to duty 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, 9th Infantry Division General Orders No. 1933 (27 June 1967)