Daniel Maynard, was born in 1945 and raised in Santa Monica, California. In 1963, he made the decision to join the Marine Corp because his father told him he would never make it as a Marine. This was the motivation he needed to help him through bootcamp. After completing Basic Training and a small arms repair course, he was transferred to the Marine Barracks in New Port, Rhode Island where he was assigned to the Security Detachment at the US Naval War College.

After his tour of duty at the War College and he saw all of the replacements for the Security Detachment had come back from Vietnam, Maynard volunteered for service in Vietnam. “I volunteered to go to Vietnam because I wanted to do my part…like they did”, said Maynard. He was assigned to First Battalion, Eleventh Marines. When he arrived in Vietnam and was assigned to oversee the required training for the M-14 replacement rifle.  He wrote, developed and supervised the training program for the new M-16 rifles.

While stationed in Da Nang, he was transferred to a Fire Base in Que Son Valley to assist with Operation Union1 where Maynard and the 5^th Marines were “in no mans land, on a hill as bait to draw out the North Vietnamese to the valley,” said Maynard. They supplied fire support in the form of 107mm mortar fire. Once the Marines began leaving the valley, the North Vietnamese re-engaged the valley where Maynard and the 5^th Marines began Operation Union 2 forcing the retreat of the North Vietnamese from that area.

Maynard, was among the first troops in Quang Tri Province. He worked with villagers to secure their forward area by placing posts and helping run concertina wire.  During a patrol of the project, Maynard saw a villager pull something from his shirt and immediately took to him to be interrogated where the villager admitted to being a Viet Cong soldier. Maynard shared that they had a saying about the locals: “Villagers by day; Viet Cong by night.”

While in Vietnam, Maynard participated in fourteen operations. The last operation he participated in was during the most important holiday celebration in Vietnamese culture known as Tet. During this holiday, a ceasefire was routinely implemented. However, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong chose not to adhere to the ceasefire. The Tet Offensive occurred as a surprise attack on all of the military bases in South Vietnam simultaneously on January 30, 1968. Once the orders were given, Maynard was part of the Team that began firing 155mm Howitzers in support of the Infantry in taking the Imperial City of Hue.

Maynard shared: “My most fulfilling moment being in the Marine Corps was being able to be a strong leader, to lead his Team into a combat zone, and return from it.”