As I looked at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial statute at the Old Courthouse in Monroe, on a hot and humid July afternoon, my eyes ran down the list of eighteen soldiers from Union County who were killed in Vietnam. The name David Mackral Jordan caught my eye. I wondered why a newborn's parents would name their child Mackral?
Maybe the young man liked to fish I thought but I concluded that he probably did not go to the coast every day that he had off from high school.
Mackral is a salt-water fish not a fresh water fish. Wonder why she didn't name him crappie, catfish, bream, or bass after the fish he probably caught when he fished around here?
The middle name of Mackral was of great curiosity to me so when I met Sarah Jordan Rorie, sister of Lance Corporal David Michael Jordan, the first question I asked her was why did her mother named him Mackral? She said I am not sure so she looked it up on his birth certificate. She told me that it appeared that someone had changed some letters in his middle name on the birth certificate so it read Mackral. I asked her if he got a lot of kidding in school with the name Mackral. She said that she never remembered that. Sarah said that unfortunately I couldn't ask his mother because she was dead.
After I explored the two big books of mementos David's mother had saved about him, I noticed in an interview this newspaper conducted in 2004 with his mother, Margaret Jordan Helms, his name was spelled Michael not Mackral. Thus, the mystery was solved.
Then I noticed that everything that the military sent to his family referred to him as David M. Jordan. Since I am a veteran, I know that the military uses your whole name when they refer to you in official records. His middle name was never included in the official records. I soon concluded that the military was not going to continue the tradition of Mackral for such a brave Marine hero and just maybe they had a suspicion that the young recruit had played around with his name on his birth certificate.
Corporal Jordan was the son of Louie Jordan from Chesterfield, South Carolina and Margaret Louise Jordan, from Union County. The family lived in the Mountain View community on highway 601 south near the South Carolina line during David's early years.
Louie Jordan died when David was just five years old. His mother later married Thomas Edford Helms and the family moved to Monroe.
There were three other children in the Jordan family: Sarah Jordan Rorie, Billy Ray Jordan, and Willie E. Jordan. Another child, Lance died in infancy. After their mother remarried, Thurman Helms was born. David graduated from Monroe High School in 1965. He knew that he was probably going to be drafted soon, so he decided to join the Marines. After basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina, he was sent to Vietnam.
After he arrived in Vietnam, he was assigned to Echo unit, which was an assault group, responsible for stopping enemy advancements in their tracks. He occupied the position of gunner. The men of the Echo unit were considered some of the best trained men in the Marines assigned to Vietnam.
The Marines awarded David the Bronze Star Medal posthumously although he was given the Medal for a fire fight that occurred just approximately a month before he was killed. He was not wounded in the battle that led to his Bronze Star. The letter awarding him the Medal stated that "during Operation Beacon Star in the Republic of South Vietnam on April 30, 1967, the point squad of the weapons platoon, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, 3rd Marine Division, Lance Corporal Jordan's machine gun team came under intense small arms fire from higher ground. There were several initial casualties and an unknown hail of fire, which pinned down the squad. With complete disregard for his own safety, Lance Corporal Jordan immediately set his machine gun in position on forward sloping ground which provided neither cover nor concealment and started firing on the enemy positions. Lance Corporal Jordan's action allowed the pinned down squad to regroup and recover their wounded. Several squad members near Lance Corporal Jordan were struck by small arms fire. His assistant gunner was shot through both legs. Throughout, Lance Corporal Jordan remained at his exposed position and continued to cover the wounded and the pinned down men. His high volume of accurate fire continued for several hours until darkness, allowing withdrawal of the remaining squad members. Lance Corporal Jordan's dedication to duty and his fellow Marines, while under heavy fire, served as a steadying example to those around him. His bold and courageous action, unswerving devotion to duty and selfless performance were in keeping with the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service."
Al Lyons, an officer in Jordan's chain of command, told Jordan's mother in 2001 that in the fire fight that resulted in her son's death, Echo unit "virtually annihilated an enemy force about three times our size, killing well over 200 North Vietnamese."
The military described in a letter to his family that he was killed accidentally on June 2, 1967, when he set some booby traps in an area near his platoon. He had been ordered to place a grenade inside a C-ration can, to rig a trip wire to pull the grenade out far enough from the C-ration can so the tripped wire would make the spoon would clear the can and pull the pin of the grenade. The grenade accidentally exploded killing David. His hands were blown off by the impact of the blast. Second Lieutenant Clifton Canter, who was the commander of David's platoon, stated "how could he die in such a needless fashion after surviving all those hundreds of hostile rounds?"
David was 20 years old when he was killed and his mother grieved for a long time, according to Sarah. She has her mother's trunk which is full of everything that her mother had ever saved on David; his letters from Vietnam, his watch, his personal effects from Vietnam, his school report cards, and his cards to her on holidays.
He was given the Purple Heart with one Gold Star, Combat Action Ribbon, Bronze Star Medal with Combat "V", Military Merit Medal, Gallantry Cross with Palm, Presidential Unit Citation , Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnamese Service Medal with one bronze star, Republic of Vietnam Military Merit Medal, Republic of Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation (Gallantry Cross Color with Palm and Frame), Republic of Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation (Civil Actions Color with Palm and Frame), Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, Rifle Sharpshooter Badge, and the Vietnamese Decree No. 447.
A non-veteran would not know that the number of medals received by Corporal Jordan was a very high number for someone in the military for approximately ten months. Sarah said that David was 65 days shy of having his year up in Vietnam and he could come home.
He is buried next to his father in the Wolf Pond Baptist Church Cemetery, just below the South Carolina line from Monroe.