Marine Medal of Honor recipient, 84, dies in Bend

Published 6:00 pm Friday, May 13, 2022

A Vietnam vet and Medal of Honor recipient who lived his last days in Bend died this week.

Retired Marine Sgt. Maj. John Lee Canley was 84.

Canley received the Medal of Honor in 2018 for his actions 50 years earlier in the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War, and 13 years after supporters started working to recognize his heroism and bravery. Of the 3,511 recipients, he was the 298th Marine and the first living Black Marine to receive the medal, the nation’s highest military honor.

Canley died peacefully Wednesday, surrounded by family at the home of his daughter, Patricia Sargent, following a 20-year fight with prostate cancer, relatives told The Bulletin.

His death came three years to the day after the death of longtime Bend resident and Medal of Honor recipient Robert Dale Maxwell, then the oldest living recipient.

Canley lived in Oxnard, California, but regularly visited Central Oregon starting in 2004, when Sargent moved to Deschutes County. His ex-wife, Viktoria Fenech, and two stepsons also live in the county.

A lifelong fitness buff, Canley enjoyed running in his daughter’s former neighborhood of Eagle Crest in Redmond, and taking in the scenery at Smith Rock.

“He always talked about how beautiful it was here,” Sargent said. “He loved to sit out on the patio. He always talked about the big sky, and how beautiful and blue it was.”

But the longtime Southern Californian didn’t care for the cold and rarely traveled here in winter, Sargent said.

Canley was in fact born in Caledonia, Arkansas, in 1937. At 15, he joined the Marine Corps using documentation belonging to his older brother.

Canley’s daughter said he “grew up” in the Marines.

He was 30 when he was deployed to Vietnam in January 1968 as a company gunnery sergeant, leading many men around a decade younger than him. The Tet Offensive, a nationwide series of simultaneous attacks by the North Vietnamese, had just begun.

According to Canley’s Medal of Honor citation, from Jan. 31 to Feb. 6, 1968, he fought off multiple attacks as his unit rapidly moved along a highway toward Hue City to relieve friendly forces that were surrounded. Despite being wounded, he repeatedly rushed across fire-swept terrain to carry his wounded Marines to safety.

Canley took command after his commanding officer was severely wounded, and led his company into Hue City. For three days, he led attacks against multiple, fortified enemy positions while again braving enemy fire to carry wounded Marines to safety.

“By his undaunted courage, selfless sacrifice, and unwavering devotion to duty, Gunnery Sergeant Canley reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service,” his citation reads.

Canley was described as quiet and not one to brag or tout his many military decorations.

“The number one thing with him is, he cared about his troops,” said Canley’s stepson, David Fenech. “He was a Marine’s Marine.” Sargent said her father was just that way.

“He didn’t advertise that he was a Medal of Honor recipient,” Sargent said. “My dad was not a showboat-kind of leader. That’s not who he was.”

Though he was a reserved presence, relatives attest to Canley regularly visiting hospitals, schools and military sites, even on his visits to Central Oregon. He attended his granddaughter’s graduation from Redmond Proficiency Academy. He even appeared in Redmond’s 2019 Fourth of July parade, riding on a float for his daughter’s employer, Consumer Cellular.

The last time he visited was December, after it was learned his prostate cancer had spread to his bones. It would be the first winter he’d spend here.

Canley will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. A ceremony to commission a U.S. Navy ship named in his honor, the USS John Canley, is scheduled for next month.

He was unable to attend an earlier ceremony to weld his name to the ship’s keel, though he sent a speech to be read aloud.

Canley’s presence in Bend was not known to the larger veterans community, according to Dick Tobiason, a recipient of the Purple Heart and veteran of the Tet Offensive.

Tobiason, who has worked to recognize Medal of Honor recipients, said he was surprised this week to learn there had been another recipient living in Bend.

Serendipitously, he’d read Canley’s Medal of Honor citation just the night before.

“He’d tell you what they’d all tell you, that it was just the thing that he had to do at the time,” Tobiason said. “No one tries to earn the Medal of Honor. It’s nothing preplanned. It’s spontaneous. And they still don’t understand the psychology behind it — why someone puts their life on the line, or does something noble. Sixty percent of Medal of Honor recipients died during their act of valor. Why do people do that? But they do.”

Canley felt his Medal of Honor was earned by the Marines he served with, his daughter said. “He was very humble, and it’s because he felt the things he achieved were not his alone,” Sargent said. “Even with me as a child, he would just do things for me without having to be asked. A lot of people call themselves leaders just to stand out in front of a crowd and take credit. And that wasn’t him at all.”