Associated Press.
Marines drag casualty from street fighting for control of southern bridge, head across street to an ambulance in Hue, Vietnam, Feb. 4, 1968.
- At the end of January 1968, the North Vietnamese Army coordinated with Viet Cong forces to launch an unprecedented offensive that would turn the tide of the war.
- The Tet Offensive began with the invasion and occupation of Hue City.
- US Marines spent nearly a month engaged in a brutal battle to retake the city.
- The chaotic urban battle saw unprecedented heroism - and resulted in five Medals of Honor.
At the end of January in 1968, the Viet Cong launched an offensive that turned the tide of the Vietnam War.
The Tet Offensive began on January 30 as the North Vietnamese occupied the city of Hue. US Marines spent nearly a month fighting a brutal urban battle to retake the city - which was 80% destroyed by the battle's end, according to H.D.S. Greenway, a photographer embedded with the Marines during the war.
An estimated 1,800 Americans lost their lives during the battle.
But in the midst of the chaos, five men who faced harrowing circumstances risked their lives to save those of their comrades - and earned the nation's highest award for courage in combat, the Medal of Honor.
During one of the ceremonies honoring these heroes, President Richard Nixon remarked on the incredible risks they took.
"They are men who faced death, and instead of losing courage they gave courage to the men around them," he said.