GARDINER — A crew of Navy Seabees honored a hero and shipmate on Veterans Day.
Marvin Glenn Shields, a Medal of Honor recipient from Port Townsend who died in combat in Vietnam on June 10, 1965, was remembered Tuesday in a ceremony at his grave at Gardiner Community Cemetery overlooking Discovery Bay.
Shields, the only Seabee to receive the highest military medal, “lived and died setting the example of our great Navy core values of honor, courage and commitment,” said retired Chief Petty Officer Shawn Huston, Silverdale secretary of the Navy Seabee Veterans of America and master of ceremonies for the service.
Construction Mechanic 3rd Class Shields posthumously received the Medal of Honor from President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966 for saving many lives during a battle in Dong Xoai, South Vietnam.
Seabee is shorthand for the Navy’s mobile construction battalion.
More than three dozen uniformed Seabees from Naval Facilities Engineering Command Northwest stood at attention during the ceremony.
About 80 civilians gathered under a windswept tent to pay tribute to Shields and other veterans as an honor guard from Mount Olympus Marine Corps League Detachment 897 played taps and performed a rifle salute.
Among those in attendance was Shields’ wife, Joan Bennett of Gardiner, and Capt. Mark Geronime, commanding officer of Naval Facilities Engineering Command Northwest.
Huston read from the Medal of Honor citation, which describes the heroism of a 25-year-old Shields.
Shields volunteered to help a commander take out a Viet Cong machine gun nest after being wounded twice in a fierce battle.
He rescued another wounded soldier and kept fighting for hours.
“When the commander asked for a volunteer to accompany him in an attempt to knock out an enemy machine gun emplacement, which was endangering the lives of all personnel in the compound because of the accuracy of its fire, Shields unhesitatingly volunteered for this extremely hazardous mission,” the citation reads.
“Proceeding toward their objective with a 3.5-inch rocket launcher, they succeeded in destroying the enemy machine gun emplacement, thus undoubtedly saving the lives of many of their fellow servicemen in the compound.”
Shields died of a gunshot wound while returning from the gun nest.
“His heroic initiative and great personal valor in the face of intense enemy fire sustain and enhance the finest tradition of the U.S. Naval Service,” the citation reads.
During Tuesday’s ceremony, Seabee Adam Brown read a variation of a Navy poem called “The Watch.”
“Even before many of us were born, this shipmate, Marvin Shields, stood the watch,” Brown said.
“Today, we are here to say shipmate Shields, the watch stands relieved. Relieved by those your memory has inspired with a sense of duty and the realization of a greater good other than self. Inspired with love of country, trust in our God and the values our country holds dear.”
Brown continued: “Shipmate Shields, you stand relieved. We are the watch.”
Seabees commemorate Shields’ death every Veterans Day at the Gardiner cemetery.
The marker on his grave reads:
He died as he lived, for his friends.
A special remembrance is planned for June 10, the 50th anniversary of Shields’ death.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
