Today in motorcycle history, February 25, 1947

  

  

  Leonard B. "Len" Keller is born in Rockford, Illinois.   At the young age of 21, Len Keller would become a recipient of the Medal of Honor for his actions in Vietnam.

  Len Keller was awarded the Medal of Honor, the country's highest award for valor, by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 "for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty" for his actions May 2, 1967, in the Ap Bac zone in Vietnam, his citation reads...




  "Leaping to the top of a dike, he and a comrade charged the enemy bunkers, dangerously exposing themselves to the enemy fire.  Armed with a light machine gun, Sgt. Keller and his comrade began a systematic assault on the enemy bunkers, the two men charged and cleared seven bunkers that had ambushed a previous unit as well as their own," the citation continues. "The ferocity of their assault had carried the soldiers beyond the line of bunkers into the tree line, forcing snipers to flee."

  The two men chased the snipers, cleared a path for their unit and, when they ran out of ammunition, returned to help the wounded.



  The other soldier, Specialist 4th Class Raymond R. Wright, also received the Medal of Honor for his actions that day.    Wright died in 1999.   Both soldiers were members of Company A, 3rd Battalion in the 60th and 9th infantry divisions.

  Leonard Keller died October 18, 2009, from injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident.  He was leaving the Fleet Reserve Association Branch 210 in Milton, Florida, when his custom-built, Harley-Davidson trike overturned.  The trike rolled several times and landed on top of him.  He was taken to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, where he was pronounced dead.  He was 62.

  On November 30, 2009, Keller was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.