Remembering Specialist Leslie L. Cowden's heroism in Vietnam
An official Army color photograph of Leslie Cowden in his uniform with insignia and awards. Blue rectangle above name tag is the Presidential Unit Citation. (object ID 2018.1810.019)
This Silver Star medal, bar, and civilian lapel pin were awarded to Leslie Cowden of St. Francis during the Vietnam War. The medal is a gold-colored, large star with a small silver star in the middle surrounded by a laurel wreath. The ribbon, bar, and lapel are blue, white, and red in the following configuration: narrow blue, narrow white, wide blue, wide white, wide red, wide white, wide blue, narrow white, narrow blue. All three pieces are stored in a black, gold-trimmed case with a pale gold velvet and satin lining. The front of the case reads "Silver Star Medal". (object ID 2018.1810.001)
By Stephanie Robertson, Historical Society volunteer
Specialist Leslie Lawrence Cowden was born on in 1946 in Cedar, the second oldest of five children who attended St. Francis High School. At age 18, Cowden joined the Army and went to Germany. After hearing about the desperate need for medics in Vietnam, he volunteered to serve.
Cowden began his tour as a replacement with the 25th Infantry Division known as the “Tropic Lightning” division. They set up base camp at Cu Chi, northeast of Saigon, unknowingly located above the most extensive network of tunnels the Viet Cong had dug.
The division had the duty of securing Hau Nghia and Tay Ninh provinces so Saigon would not feel the constant threat of enemy forces from that heavily Viet Cong fortified area. Daily tasks for the men of the 25th Infantry Division included guarding important installations, keeping roads open and operational, guarding the nearby hamlets and disrupting enemy political activities and force operations. For the men of the 25th, this meant daily search and destroy operations rotated with pacification efforts. The Ho Bo and Boi Loi woods just north of Cu Chi proved difficult and dangerous areas, which they became familiar with during the constant struggle to secure them from the grasp of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army.
As a field medic, Cowden received support from an armored personnel carrier since his unit was mechanized. Cowden’s brother, Don, remembers stories of how, since Cowden had ice coolers for the plasma he carried as part of his supplies, he would always make room to keep some sodas cold for his men.
Cowden’s day-to-day events have been lost, but his heroic actions have survived in the memories of those he saved. On Jan. 8, 1968, Jon Hovde sat in the driver’s seat of the lead armored personnel patrolling Rome Plows, digging paths through the thick jungle. When instructed to move around two of the tanks also present on this patrol, Hovde’s vehicle detonated an antitank mine, ejecting the engine and throwing all but two men from the vehicle, including Hovde. Cowden responded quickly, crawling back into the personnel carrier, despite his injuries, to pull Hovde from the remains. Hovde later reported that Cowden’s hair caught fire during the rescue, but he ignored it to focus on his patient, leaving other men to put it out. After initially believing Hovde to be dead, Cowden left to tend to another injured soldier before being called back to Hovde’s side. It took only 15 minutes for Cowden to pull Hovde from the wreckage, get him stabilized, transported to the 12th Evac Hospital and into the operating room. As Hovde recalls, “I was losing so much blood Cowden doubted I’d make it, but there was no way he was giving up.”
Cowden was killed less than a month later, only days after the North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive. On Feb. 3, 1968, Bravo and Charlie companies were doing reconnaissance operations, searching for suspected rocket sites, when enemy forces ambushed and forced them to call in air support. Four armored personnel carriers from Bravo and Charlie companies were moving through the Ho Bo Woods, around the border between Hau Nghia and Binh Duong provinces approximately 19 miles north-northwest of Saigon, when they drove into a three-sided ambush.
Bravo Company’s armored personnel carrier #34 was in the lead, triggering the ambush of Viet Cong forces armed with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. A four-man rescue unit was called in to rescue APC #34, but of the three men, only the weapons loader was found and brought to the company’s medic, believed to be Cowden, for treatment. While APC #34 was under attack, Charlie Company’s APC #33 struck an antitank mine, killing its driver. During this engagement with enemy forces, Cowden died of multiple fragmentation wounds from a grenade or mortar-type explosive. His remains were recovered, and Cowden is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Anoka.
Cowden posthumously received recognition for his actions that saved the lives of his comrades, including the Bronze Star for “Meritorious Achievement in Ground Operations Against Hostile Forces” on Feb. 20, 1968, the Silver Star for gallantry on April 7, 1968, and the Purple Heart Oct. 2, 1968.
Learn more about Cowden by reading “Left For Dead” by Hovde or visiting the Anoka County Historical Society.
Stephanie Roberton is an Anoka County Historical Society volunteer.