abstract
| - LaPointe, known to his family as "Guy", was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. After graduating from Northridge High School in 1966, he moved to nearby Clayton and worked as a mail carrier in Englewood. LaPointe was a nature lover and an avid hiker. LaPointe was drafted in 1968 and declared himself a conscientious objector. He was trained as a combat medic and sent to Vietnam in November 1968. By June 2 of the next year, he was a Specialist Four serving with the 2nd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. On that day, he participated in a patrol on Hill 376 in Quang Tin province. When his unit came under heavy fire from entrenched enemy forces and took several casualties, LaPointe ran through the automatic weapons fire to reach two wounded men at the head of the patrol. He treated the soldiers and shielded them with his body, even after being twice wounded, until an enemy grenade killed all three men. For these actions, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in January 1972. His other decorations include the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and National Defense Service Medal. He left a "widow, Cindy LaPointe [now] Dafler, and [a] son Joseph G. LaPointe III, who ...never met his father."
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