DOB/DOD: November 1, 1945 (Hartford, CT) – November 8, 2000 (Rocky Hill, CT); 55 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Married to Barbara A. Corbeil (1949-) on July 19, 1969, in Glastonbury, Connecticut.
CHILDREN: One son, John L. Jr. (1973-). One daughter, Corrie L. Levitow Wilson Santelises (1975-).
ENLISTMENT: June 6, 1966.
DISCHARGE: April 3, 1970.
FAMILY: Born to Leonard T. (1912-1983) and Marion V. Winialski (1911-2001). One sister, Mary L. Levitow Constantine (1946-2004).
DECORATIONS: He was also the recipient of the Air Medal with 8 Oak Leaf Clusters, the Purple Heart Medal, and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Bronze Star.
OTHER: Member of the Connecticut Veterans Hall of Fame, Class of 2008.
Glastonbury High School Class of ’65 yearbook
Photo (two above) A1C John Lee Levitow, United States Air Force. (United States Air Force 120517-F-DW547-010). Photo (above) is a public domain photo.
MEDAL OF HONOR CITATION
AWARDED FOR ACTIONS DURING: Vietnam War
BRANCH OF SERVICE: Air Force
UNIT: 3rd Special Operations Squadron
GENERAL ORDERS: Department of the Air Force, Special Order GB-476 (June 23, 1970)
AGE ON THE DAY OF THE EVENT: 23
CITATION:
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Sergeant [then Airman First Class] John Lee Levitow, United States Air Force, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty serving with the 3rd Special Operations Squadron, 14th Special Operations Wing, in the air over Long Binh Army Post, Republic of Vietnam, on 24 February 1969. Sergeant Levitow, U.S. Air Force, distinguished himself by exceptional heroism while assigned as a loadmaster aboard an AC-47 aircraft flying a night mission in support of Long Binh Army post. Sergeant Levitow’s aircraft was struck by a hostile mortar round. The resulting explosion ripped a hole two feet in diameter through the wing, and fragments made over 3,500 holes in the fuselage. All occupants of the cargo compartment were wounded and helplessly slammed against the floor and fuselage. The explosion tore an activated flare from the grasp of a crewmember who had been launching flares to provide illumination for Army ground troops engaged in combat. Sergeant Levitow, though stunned by the concussion of the blast and suffering from over 40 fragment wounds in the back and legs, staggered to his feet and turned to assist the man nearest to him, who had been knocked down and was bleeding heavily. As he was moving his wounded comrade forward and away from the opened cargo compartment door, he saw the smoking flare ahead of him in the aisle. Realizing the danger involved and completely disregarding his own wounds, Sergeant Levitow started toward the burning flare. The aircraft was partially out of control, and the flare was rolling wildly from side to side. Sergeant Levitow struggled forward despite the loss of blood from his many wounds and the partial loss of feeling in his right leg. Unable to grasp the rolling flare with his hands, he threw himself bodily upon the burning flare. Hugging the deadly device to his body, he dragged himself back to the rear of the aircraft and hurled the flare through the open cargo door. At that instant, the flare separated and ignited in the air, but clear of the aircraft. Sergeant Levitow, by his selfless and heroic actions, saved the aircraft and its entire crew from certain death and destruction. Sergeant Levitow’s gallantry, his profound concern for his fellowmen, at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.
Presentation Date and Details: May 14, 1970, the White House, presented by President Richard M. Nixon
John Levitow’s Medal of Honor from the archives at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
John Levitow decided to join the Navy after high school because the Army and the Marines required a lot of walking, and to him, that seemed like too much work. But when he showed up at the Navy recruiting office and had to wait because the recruiters were busy, he went next door and joined the Air Force.
Levitow was sent to Vietnam as a loadmaster for C-130s. On the night of February 24, 1969, he was asked to fill in for the regular loadmaster on an AC-47 called Spooky 71. An adaptation of the famous DC-3 airliner, the specially outfitted gunship carried three 7.62-mm mini guns that could accurately spray up to six thousand rounds a minute. It could also, in a few seconds, light up the darkness for GIs below—each of its MK-24 flares burned at three thousand degrees and provided two million candlepower intensity.
After cruising for more than four hours, Spooky 71 received orders to go to the Bien Hoa area, where North Vietnamese troops had come out of their jungle sanctuaries under the cover of darkness to launch attacks on U.S. troops. Banking in tight circles about one thousand feet above the ground, the plane dropped several of its twenty-seven-pound flares out of the open cargo door, then raked the enemy with bursts from its mini-guns that sounded like loud zippers.
Suddenly, Spooky 71 was rocked by a violent explosion. The plane had flown directly into the path of an enemy mortar round, and shrapnel had ripped holes in its wings and body. As the aircraft lurched wildly, the pilot struggled to keep control. The five crewmen in the hold were all wounded. Airman First Class Levitow had been struck by more than forty shell fragments on his right side just as he was arming a flare. The crew member who had been about to throw the flare out of the plane was on his back, and the flare was bouncing wildly through the hold.
With the plane gyrating in a 30-degree turn, Levitow, despite the numbness overtaking his body, got to one of the gunners who was about to fall out of the open cargo door and dragged him back from the bay by his uniform. Then he went after the flare; he knew it would detonate within about twenty seconds, burn through the metal floor of the cargo hold, explode the ammunition, and destroy the plane.
The plane pitched and bucked, throwing Levitow from side to side. Twice, the smoking flare rolled just beyond his grasp. Then he fell on top of the two-foot canister and trapped it. Hugging it to his body, he crawled toward the cargo door and heaved the canister out. It exploded a split second later. The pilot of Spooky 71 later reconstructed what had happened in the hold by the pattern of the blood Levitow had left on the floor.
John Levitow recovered from his wounds after a brief hospital stay. He flew twenty more missions in Vietnam before being discharged in 1969. On May 14, 1970, he was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Richard Nixon. He was the first enlisted man in the Air Force to receive this honor. The Air Force later named its outstanding graduate award, given by each enlisted professional military education class, the John L. Levitow Award.
John Lee Levitow worked for federal and state veterans’ agencies for more than two decades after leaving the Air Force. He was the legislative liaison and director of planning for the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs at the time of his death.
From The Hartford Courant January 29, 1969
U.S. Air Force Sergeant John L. Levitow, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lee T. Levitow, 38 Kimberly Lane, South Glastonbury, has been decorated with the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Bronze Star at Bien Hoa Air Base in South Vietnam.
Levitow was recognized for his heroic defense of the Phuoc Tan outpost during an enemy assault last September 1968. Overcoming the handicaps of darkness, adverse weather, and intense anti-aircraft fire, Levitow and his crew dropped flares to light the area and flew close turns in order to fire and repel the assault.
Levitow, a member of the 3rd Special Operations Squadron, flies the modified C-47 Skytrain. He is a 1965 graduate of Glastonbury High School. WEBMASTER NOTE: The incident in the previous article happened the month before the incident, resulting in his receiving the Medal of Honor.
Honored at the Connecticut State Veterans Cemetery in Middletown, Connecticut, at the main flagpole in the cemetery. Photo by Jeff DeWitt.
Honored at Green Park, Green Cemetery Road, Glastonbury, Connecticut.
Honored with a marker on Oneal Avenue, Hurlburt Field Memorial Air Park, Hurlburt Field, Florida.
Buried in Arlington National Cemetery, 1 Memorial Drive, Arlington, Virginia; Section 66, Grave 7107. Photo by Jeff DeWitt.
END