A U.S. Army veteran who lives in Colorado Springs was one of 258 Vietnam-era Medal of Honor recipients honored on Memorial Day with picture stamps dedicated by the U.S. Postal Service.
Sgt. Peter Lemon, 65, of Colorado Springs, appears on a sheet with 47 other surviving Vietnam-era servicemen. The stamps were dedicated at a Memorial Day ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Lemon received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor, for “gallantry and extraordinary heroism” as an assistant machine gunner defending Fire Support Base Illingworth in South Vietnam’s Tay Ninh province on April 1, 1970.
Lemon was outnumbered, and when his machine gun and rifle became inoperable, he fought off attackers with hand grenades and in hand-to-hand fighting.
“He was wounded yet a third time, but his determined efforts successfully drove the enemy from the position,” .
