Kern W. Dunagan Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

Dunagan reached the rank of colonel before leaving the Army. In 1985, a skin cancer melanoma was found in a mole on Dunagan’s neck. The cancer would eventually metastasize in his inner organs and he died in 1991 at age 57 and was buried in San Francisco National Cemetery, San Francisco, California.

Dunagan joined the Army from Los Angeles, California, and by May 13, 1969, was serving as a captain in Company A, 1st Battalion, 46th Infantry Regiment, Americal Division. During a firefight starting on May 12 and finally ending on May 14, 1969, in Quang Tin Province, South Vietnam, Dunagan showed conspicuous leadership as he organized his men and rescued wounded soldiers despite his own serious wounds.

Throughout the ensuing night of May 13 and morning of May 14, the attack was unrelenting and Dunagan was again seriously wounded for a second time with two gunshot wounds he received while he was rescuing a pinned down recon soldier. Again, he refused to be evacuated. Company C of the 1/46th, commanded by 1Lt Walt Brownlee, maneuvered to within shouting distance of Alpha Company, but two attempts to link the units failed, with many killed and severely wounded in each company. In the end, after losing many of his men during those two days, Dunagan was finally able to maneuver his remaining 42 men by way of a plan struck in the final hours of daylight of May 14, 1969.

Dunagan spent the next weeks of May and June 1969, in Tokyo, Japan with a shattered cheek bone, two broken molars, two gunshot wounds resulting in two broken arm bones, a broken foot and several other cuts and bruises. After surgeries to repair his wounds and recuperation, he was sent stateside to resume his career.

Dunagan was wounded on two occasions during this ferocious battle, fought four kilometers west of his battalion’s firebase at LZ Professional. Still, with his company of soldiers, along with the Reconnaissance Platoon, of Echo Company, 1/46th, commanded by 1Lt David Waltz, they successfully fought off wave after wave from a battalion of Viet Cong (VC) regulars in near, hand-to-hand combat conditions. Dunagan was first severely wounded in the face in the early evening of May 13 during a mortar attack. With the lack of line officers in Alpha Company a primary consideration, he refused to be evacuated and thus, separated from his men. Dunagan was the only line officer with Alpha at the time. Echo Company’s Waltz was the only other infantry officer present. The Alpha platoons were led by enlisted men.

Kern Wayne Dunagan (February 20, 1934 – December 27, 1991) was a United States Army officer and a recipient of the United States military’s highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in the Vietnam War.