Joseph Guy LaPointe Jr., a young man who loved the outdoors and had hoped to study forestry in college, was killed on June 2, 1969, one month before his twenty-first birthday, while trying to save wounded comrades under hostile fire in Quang Tin province, Vietnam. Serving as a medical aid man during a helicopter assault mission, he advanced with his patrol through a valley until heavy fire from a well-fortified bunker seriously wounded two soldiers in the vanguard. LaPointe crawled directly in view of the enemy position to reach them, shielded them with his own body, and administered aid. Struck by enemy gunfire, he continued comforting his comrades until two bursts of automatic weapons fire and a grenade killed him. His parents, Joseph G. LaPointe and his wife, accepted the Congressional Medal of Honor on his behalf in Washington, D.C., where Vice President Spiro T. Agnew presented the posthumous award.