Donald Paul Sloat (February 6, 1949 – January 17, 1970) was a
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
soldier and a posthumous recipient of the
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valo ...
, the military's highest decoration for his actions in the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
.
Early life
Donald Sloat was born to Ezra Paul Sloat and his wife, Beatrice Evelyn Turnbow, in Coweta, Oklahoma, where he lived most of his life. He graduated from Coweta High School in 1967. He then attended
Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College
Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (NEO) is a public community college in Miami, Oklahoma. Established as the Miami School of Mines in 1919, NEO has an enrollment of approximately two thousand students. The Golden Norsemen is the school mascot.
...
in
Miami, Oklahoma
Miami ( ) is a city in and county seat of Ottawa County, Oklahoma, United States, founded in 1891. Lead and zinc mining were established by 1918, causing the area's economy to boom.
This area was part of Indian Territory. Miami is the capital of ...
.
Military career
He enlisted in the U.S. Army on March 19, 1969. After finishing basic training at
Fort Polk
Fort Polk is a United States Army installation located in Vernon Parish, Louisiana, about 10 miles (15 km) east of Leesville and 30 miles (50 km) north of DeRidder in Beauregard Parish.
It was named to honor Leonidas Polk, the firs ...
,
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, he shipped out to South Vietnam in September, 1969. By then, he was a machine gunner in the 3rd Platoon, Company D, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment,
196th Light Infantry Brigade
The 196th Infantry Brigade ("Chargers"), also known as the Charger Brigade was first formed on 24 June 1921 as part of the United States Army Reserve's 98th Division with the responsibility of training soldiers.
World War II
During World War II, ...
Sloat earned the following awards and decorations:
From 2002, the U.S. Army reviewed all 6,500 recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross to see if any recipients had been short-changed; this led to two dozen medal upgrades in March 2014. In 2013, as part of the
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 (; NDAA 2014Pub.L 113-66 is a United States federal law which specifies the budget and expenditures of the United States Department of Defense (DOD) for Fiscal Year 2014. The law author ...
, the Senate Armed Service Committee passed a provision removing the time limit for Donald P. Sloat and Bennie G. Adkins. On September 15, 2014, President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to Adkins as an upgrade of his 1967 Distinguished Service Cross. During that ceremony, the Medal of Honor was awarded posthumously to Sloat and
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
army officer
Alonzo Cushing
Alonzo Hereford Cushing (January 19, 1841 – July 3, 1863) was an artillery officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was killed in action during the Battle of Gettysburg while defending the Union position on Cemetery Ridge agai ...
. President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
presented the medal to Donald's brother, Bill Sloat (now deceased), in a ceremony at the East Room of the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
.
Medal of Honor citation
Rank and organization: Specialist Four, United States Army, 3rd Platoon, Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division.
Place and date:
Que Son Valley
QUE or que may refer to:
* Quebec (Que.), as the traditional abbreviation, though the postal abbreviations are now QC and previously PQ
* Que Publishing, a company which first began as a publisher of technical computer software and hardware suppo ...
Republic of Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of t ...
, January 17, 1970
Entered service at:
Coweta, Oklahoma
Coweta is a city in Wagoner County, Oklahoma, United States, a suburb of Tulsa. As of 2010, its population was 9,943. Part of the Creek Nation in Indian Territory before Oklahoma became a U.S. state, the town was first settled in 1840.
Decorations donated to Coweta
February 6, 2017, was declared as Specialist Donald P. Sloat Medal of Honor Day in Coweta. The remainder of Sloat's family had decided to donate the Medal of Honor, along with many other military decorations, to Robert Morton, mayor of the city of Coweta, for display. The medals will be permanently displayed at Coweta City Hall.Wheeland, Christy. "Sloat family presents Medal of Honor to the City of Coweta." ''Tulsa World''. February 6, 2017. Accessed February 3, 2018.