12 August

Kenneth Lee Worley is born on 27 April 1948 in Farmington, New Mexico, and he completes the 8th grade at Farmington Elementary School in 1962. After being orphaned, Worley moves to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico and attends Hot Spring High School there for two years. At age sixteen, he moves to Modesto, California to live with an aunt. The conditions there are poor for Worley—living in a travel trailer with no running water or electricity. Instead of going to school, he works as a truck driver, hauling loads of Christmas trees out of the mountains. After injuring his foot at work, Worley is taken in by Don and Rose Feyerherm of Modesto—they treat him like a son and become his foster parents.

Worley enlists in the United States Marine Corps in Fresno on 14 June 1967 and receives recruit training with the 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California. Upon completion of recruit training in August, Private Worley is transferred to the Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, California where he undergoes individual combat training with Romeo Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Training Regiment, and basic infantry training with the 2nd Infantry Training Regiment, completing the latter in October. He is promoted to private first class on 1 November is ordered to the Republic of Vietnam later that month.
Assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Worley serves consecutively as a rifleman with India Company, with Headquarters and Service Company, and with Lima Company, and he is promoted to lance corporal on 1 May 1968.

While serving as a machine gunner with Lima Company on 12 August, he is killed in action, saving five fellow Marines by his actions. Kenneth Worley is buried in Westminster Memorial Park, Westminster, California and his name is inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Panel 48 West, Line 01. The “LCpl Kenneth L. Worley” Young Marine unit based in Norwalk, California is named in his honor. Worley’s military decorations include the Medal of Honor, the Purple Heart, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal with four bronze service stars, and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal. The Medal of Honor is presented posthumously to Worley’s son and foster family, two years later.

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