John C. Bahnsen Jr., 89, deceased; Fierce commander during the Vietnam War

John C. Bahnsen Jr., a retired Army brigadier general who received nineteen awards for valor during the Vietnam War, mainly for his reckless, hands-on command of an air cavalry troop that saw heavy fighting, died Feb. 21 at his home. at home in Rochelle, Georgia. He was 89.

His wife, Peggy Bahnsen, a retired lieutenant colonel, confirmed the death. She said he had congestive heart failure.

General Bahnsen was one of the most decorated combat veterans in American history. He received the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second-highest award for heroism after the Medal of Honor; five silver stars; four Legions of Merit; three Distinguished Flying Crosses; four Bronze Stars (three for bravery); two Purple Hearts; and the Army Commendation Medal with a “V” device for valor.

He earned most of these honors during the second of two tours in Vietnam, when he led a force from the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment commanded by Maj. Gen. George S. Patton, son of Gen. George S. Patton Jr. World War II fame.

The younger Patton’s battle motto was: “Find the motherfuckers and pile on them.” Temperamentally, General Bahnsen, then a major, seemed perfectly suited for the job. As James Noe, one of his pilots, recalled, when General Bahnsen took command of his troops, he asked, “Who wants to wrestle?” (No one did.)

He was also blunt in describing their mission: to kill as many North Vietnamese soldiers as possible, even as protesters at home called American troops “baby killers” and worse.

“We are not here for people’s hearts and minds,” Mr. Noe said in an interview. ‘We are there to kill the enemy. That’s what he put into our psyche.”

Unlike fellow commanders who led from a desk, General Bahnsen led troops from his own helicopter – a tactic that allowed him to coordinate air and ground forces simultaneously, which he did while firing his rifle and grenades from his window dropped.

“We sometimes thought he had a death wish,” Mr. Noe said.

He did, but not for himself.

“The enemy of my country is my enemy, and our mission was to kill them,” General Bahnsen said an interview from 2013 with the American Veterans Center. “You could catch them if you could. We captured many in my units, but we also killed them. And my feeling was: that is our job.”

He was relentless. He often landed his helicopter to fight alongside his ground troops. One day he was shot three times. Each time he ordered the delivery of a replacement helicopter so that he could attack again.

General Bahnsen “created a legend around himself,” wrote General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the top American commander in the Gulf War, in the foreword to “American Warrior” (2007), General Bahnsen’s autobiography. “No one I know has ever doubted his dauntless courage and boundless energy in mingling with the enemy.”

General Bahnsen received the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions during a battle in early 1969.

After his crew chief was seriously wounded by heavy gunfire at low altitude, General Bahnsen evacuated him, refueled and rearmed.

“I was mad as hell!” he wrote in his autobiography. “I thought those bastards just killed my crew chief.”

Not knowing whether the crew chief was alive or dead (he survived but was paralyzed), General Bahnsen returned to the battlefield.

“He forced them into a closed area, marked their position and launched five air strikes against them, while simultaneously controlling four separate rifle platoons,” he said. award quote is reading.

Enemy fire crippled his helicopter, so he returned to his base and grabbed another.

Upon his return, the citation says, “he landed to escort the lift ships carrying an additional infantry unit, then led a rifle platoon through dense terrain to personally capture two enemies attempting to escape.”

He ordered the prisoners to be evacuated by helicopter while he remained on the ground, and led his squad on foot more than a mile to a safe position.

John Charles Bahnsen Jr. was born on November 8, 1934 in Albany, Georgia, and was given the lifelong nickname Doc by his grandfather, a Danish immigrant and veterinarian who owned a dairy farm. His father was a soil conservationist and an Army reservist. His mother, Evelyn (Williams) Bahnsen, managed the household.

He graduated from Marion Military Institute in Alabama in 1952 and was accepted into the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was, by his own admission, not a particularly good student; he graduated 406th out of 480 students with a commission as a second lieutenant in the infantry.

After basic officer training, he attended airborne school and served as a pilot in the Third Aviation Company of the Third Infantry Division in Germany. He later switched to armored warfare and led a tank company.

His first tour in Vietnam took place in 1965, when he commanded a fighter platoon.

The following year he returned to the United States and served as a staff officer in the Pentagon’s Army Aviation Directorate. While there, he reconnected with the younger General Patton, who had been one of his senior officers at West Point.

When General Patton, then a colonel, took over the 11th Armored Regiment in Vietnam, he brought General Bahnsen with him to lead an air cavalry troop. General Patton, an intimidating, hard-to-please figure like his father, thought General Bahnsen was worthy of praise.

“He is one of those rare professionals who truly enjoys fighting, taking risks and sparring with a cunning enemy,” General Patton wrote in an evaluation of General Bahnsen, adding that he was “the most motivated and professionally competent leader was with whom I served. in 23 years of service, including the Korean War and two tours in Vietnam.”

General Bahnsen later served in Germany and South Korea. He retired in 1986 with one star.

He married Patricia Fitzgerald twice, in 1956 and, after they divorced, again in 1972. Their second marriage also ended in divorce. In between those marriages, he married Phyllis Shaughnessy in 1969; that marriage also ended in divorce.

He married Margaret Miller, better known as Peggy, in 1974. Lt. Col. Bahnsen was the first woman to serve as a regimental tactical officer at West Point. She was also a professor of military science at West Virginia University.

In addition to his wife, General Bahnsen is survived by three children from his first marriage: Chris, LeeAnne and Jimi Bahnsen; another child, Minh Nelson Bahnsen; eight grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and a brother, Peter.

In the last weeks of General Bahnsen’s life, Mr. Noe returned for duty and helped dress and care for him.

One day, while helping to clean General Bahnsen’s buttocks, Mr. Noe noticed that he had kissed many generals’ buttocks but had never wiped one.

“He had a good laugh about it,” he said. “It was an honor to be there for him.”