 |
Remember...Roger Gene Craig
|
Roger Gene Craig was born on May 2, 1948, in Indian Mills, Summers County, West Virginia as the only child of Oliver and Thelma Martin Craig. His family soon moved to Clear Fork in Wyoming County, where Roger spent his childhood. He attended Berlin McKinney School, Oceana Middle School, and graduated from Oceana High School in 1966.
Roger grew up in the small unincorporated community of Clear Fork, attending the schools of nearby Oceana. As a member of the Baby Boom generation, he experienced the social turmoil of the 1950s and 60s firsthand, even in a small traditional coal mining region like Wyoming County. Perhaps the most formative event of his early life was the Vietnam War, which grew in intensity and importance as Roger finished high school.
Roger enlisted in the U.S. Army in March 1969 and underwent training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and Fort Gordon, Georgia. After he finished his time at Fort Gordon, he went to Fort Hood, Texas, before finally heading off to Vietnam in a tour of duty beginning November 9, 1969. He was assigned to the Army's I Field Force, 50th Infantry Regiment, 1st Battalion, Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC). Roger served as a 63C, a General Vehicle Repairman and held the rank of Specialist Four (SP4).
| On May 3, 1970, in the Binh Thuan Province of South Vietnam, SP4 Craig was serving in a voluntary reaction force when the group was ambushed by enemy troops firing rockets, automatic weaponry, and small arms at the outnumbered defenders. When the truck he was riding in was struck by an enemy rocket, SP4 Craig dismounted the truck without a thought of self-preservation and laid down suppressive fire upon the enemy until a grenade mortally wounded him. His body was recovered and returned to the U.S., where he was buried at Fairview Baptist Church Cemetery in Forest Hill, West Virginia, near his birthplace in Summers County. He is buried alongside his father, who died in 1967, and his mother, who died in 2003. |  Find A Grave photo courtesy D. Mack |
In recognition of his immense bravery and self-sacrifice, SP4 Craig was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal with "V" device for valor, the Purple Heart, the National Defense Medal, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, and the Vietnam Service Medal. In 2003, the West Virginia Legislature passed a resolution to name the bridge on State Route 971 between Lillyhaven and Lillydale in Wyoming County the "Roger Gene Craig Bridge." He is remembered on the Vietnam War Memorial on Panel W11, Line 90 in Washington, D.C., and the West Virginia Veterans Memorial in Charleston, West Virginia. He is also remembered for his sacrifice on a plaque in Hinton, Summers County, West Virginia.
Article prepared by John Ward, George Washington High School JROTC
February 2020
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.
