He is a U.S. senator. He was once the Secretary of the Navy and an Assistant Secretary of Defense. He is an accomplished writer with a number of very successful books, fiction and non-fiction, to his credit. He has worked in the movie industry. He is controversial. But before he was any of these things, James Henry "Jim" Webb Jr. was a Marine.
When he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968, the Marine Corps was having difficulty making its service-selection quota because of the fierce combat then raging in Vietnam. Not surprising for a young man with a family heritage of combat service, who was an accomplished boxer, and whose nickname was "Spike," Jim Webb volunteered for the Marine Corps.
Within a year of graduation, First Lieutenant Webb was a platoon commander with Company D, First Battalion, First Marine Division (Reinforced) in I-Corps, the northern quarter of South Vietnam where North Vietnamese Army units operated in strength. On his first three patrols, his platoon saw action in two, and it was clear that he was in the thick of it. Living conditions were Spartan at best, casualties were mounting, and the news from home was discouraging, yet "Spike" thought to himself, "When I return, I want to be able to stand before the people who were at Tarawa, Iwo Jima, and the Chosin Reservoir, and I want to be able to say that I met their standard."
On 10 July 1969, on a company-sized search-and-destroy mission deep in hostile territory, his platoon came upon a well-camouflaged bunker complex. Although there were no apparent signs of life, Webb deployed his men into defensive positions before approaching the bunkers. As he neared the first one, three enemy soldiers armed with hand grenades leaped out. Without hesitation Webb grabbed the closest soldier and, brandishing his .45 caliber pistol, captured all three.
Undaunted by this revelation of enemy presence, Lieutenant Webb then proceeded to the next bunker, accompanied by one of his men. Calling for the enemy in that bunker to surrender, he was answered by a live grenade tossed from within. Although it detonated dangerously close, Webb and the other Marine were not injured. He then detonated a claymore mine into the bunker entrance, accounting for two enemy casualties and disclosing the entrance to a tunnel. Despite the smoke and debris from the explosion and the possibility of additional enemy soldiers hiding in the tunnel, Webb then conducted a thorough search that yielded several items of equipment and numerous documents containing valuable intelligence data.
Continuing the assault, he approached a third bunker and was preparing to fire into it when the enemy threw another grenade. Seeing it land dangerously close to his companion, Webb simultaneously fired his weapon at the enemy, pushed the other Marine away from the grenade, and shielded him from the explosion with his own body. Although sustaining painful fragmentation wounds from the explosion, he managed to throw a grenade into the bunker's entrance and completely destroyed it.
Jim Webb's dreams of someday wearing a general's stars ended when his wounds proved career-ending, but he had clearly met the standard of those Marines who had preceded him. For his actions that day, Jim Webb was awarded the Navy Cross and a Purple Heart . . . which he added to his Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and his other Purple Heart.