Russell Albert Steindam

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Full Name: Russell Albert Steindam
Location: No Plot Assigned
Reason for Eligibility: Medal of Honor Recipient 
Birth Date: August 27, 1946 
Died: February 1, 1970 
Burial Date:  
 

RUSSELL ALBERT STEINDAM (1946 ~ 1970). Medal of Honor Recipient Russell Albert Steindam was born on August 27, 1946, in Austin, Texas. His family then moved to Plano, Texas, where Steindam attended high school. Steindam later returned to Austin to attend the University of Texas.

After his graduation, he joined the Army in Austin in August 1968. He was deployed to Vietnam as a First Lieutenant with Troop B, Third Squadron, Fourth Cavalry, 25th Infantry Division in 1969.

On February 1, 1970, Steindam led his platoon on a night ambush attack. En route to the planned ambush site, one flank of the platoon was attacked by the enemy with intense fire from small arms, rockets, and grenades. Steindam ordered his men to fire on the enemy's position and moved the wounded into a shallow bomb crater. An enemy grenade landed in the crater, and without hesitation, Steindam shouted a warning and threw himself on the grenade, absorbing its explosion and saving the lives of all the soldiers in the immediate area. For this action, Steindam was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

His Medal of Honor was presented to his family, including his wife, Mary, and son, Russell Steindam Matthews, born 23 days after his father's death, by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew on December 16, 1971, at the Old Executive Office Building near the White House.

Steindam is buried at Restland Memorial Park in Dallas, Texas. Russell A. Steindam Hall on the University of Texas campus houses meetings of the ROTC as well as various other clubs and organizations.

Bibliography: "Above and Beyond: The Medal of Honor in Texas," Capitol Visitors Center, State Preservation Board of Texas. Campus Buildings, University of Texas at Austin, http://www.utexas.edu/maps/buildings/ras.html, April 26, 2006. "Plano Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient Remembered," Plano City News, May 31, 2005, http://www.plano.gov/News/Top+Stories/2005/nb053105_memorial.htm, August 14, 2006. "Plano Officer Given Nation's Highest Medal," Dallas Times Herald, December 17, 1971.

 

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