Marine sacrifice gets national level honor

Marine's sacrifice gets national level honor
Sunday, May 02, 2010
By FRED CONTRADA
fcontrada@repub.com
HOLYOKE - When Marine Lance Cpl. Clayton K. Hough Jr. came home from Vietnam without his legs, he could have spent his time feeling sorry for himself.

Instead, Hough put his considerable energy into working with teenagers who aspired to be Marines like him.

Hough, who died in 2004 at the age of 55, earned the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, and the National Defense Service Medal among other honors for his stint in Vietnam.


This month, the U.S. Department of Defense will bestow upon him one final honor by adding his name to the national Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The 35th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War was Friday.

Hough is among six veterans whose names are being added to the monument, which is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the Vietnam war. Six years after his passing, the government has concluded that Hough died of the wounds he suffered in Vietnam.

"Medical evidence submitted by the Department of the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery indicates that Lance Cpl. Hough qualifies as having 'died as a result of wounds (combat or hostile related) sustained in the combat zone' due to the amputations that he received as a result of his wounds," reads the defense department's conclusion. His "date of casualty" is listed as Feb. 22, 1969.
read more here
Marine's sacrifice gets national level honor