Background
Okamoto was born November 22, 1943, to an American family of Japanese origin that was interned during the Second World War at the Poston relocation camp in Arizona.
Okamoto was born November 22, 1943, to an American family of Japanese origin that was interned during the Second World War at the Poston relocation camp in Arizona.
He attended Gardena High School, where he served as senior class president Okamoto attended El Camino College from 1962 to 1965. From 1965 to 1967 he attended University of Southern California receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations in 1967.
He is the most highly decorated Japanese American to survive the Vietnam War. He is the youngest of the ten children of Henry and Yone Okamoto. The family later moved to Gardena, California, when he was twelve years old.
He was a three-year letter man in track and football and belonged to the Men"s Honor Society.
United States Army and career in Vietnam He enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Corps and was the first non-University of California, Los Angeles student to be commissioned through the University of California, Los Angeles Reserve Officers Training Corps program He earned his commission as an United States. Army 2nd Lieutenant.
After receiving Ranger training he was given orders to report to Vietnam. In 1968, Lieutenant Okamoto was assigned as the intelligence-liaison officer for 2 months for the Phoenix Program while attached to Company Bachelor of the 2nd Battalion, 25th Infantry Division.
Second Lieutenant Okamoto distinguished himself on 24 August 1968 while serving as a platoon leader with an infantry unit near Dau Tieng.
A ground attack was launched against his battalion’s night location by three reinforced North Vietnamese and Viet Congress companies. The initial assault destroyed a strategic section of the perimeter. Under heavy automatic weapons, small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire, Lieutenant Okamoto moved five of his men to restore this vital position.
Realizing the need for supporting fire, he ran to a partially destroyed armored personnel carrier and manned its machine gun.
After the weapon malfunctioned, he dashed through the fusillade of enemy fire to a second and then a third carrier to place suppressing fire on enemy soldiers. Civilian life = Personal He was also instrumental in establishing the Japanese American Vietnam War Veterans Memorial at the National Japanese American Veterans Memorial Court.
= Legal Okamoto spent five years as a prosecutor and eight years practicing law privately. On 15 April 2002, Governor Gray Davis appointed civil attorney Vincent H. Okamoto to the Los Angeles Superior Court bench.
He was honored as the 2006 University of California, Los Angeles Veteran of the Year.
Judge Okamoto has continued to serve the community on various Veterans boards, in Gardena city government. = Writing Vincent Okamoto is a novelist as well, having penned Wolfhound Samurai: A Novel of the Vietnam War. He is currently finishing up his second publication called "Forged in Fire: The Story of Hershey and Joe" to be released by November 2012.
Okamoto is the highest-decorated Japanese-American veteran of the Vietnam War. His medals include Purple Heart with three oak leaf clusters Distinguished Service Cross Silver Star Bronze Star Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry He was inducted Into Ranger Hall of Fame on September 1, 2007. He is the fourth Japanese American (and first since World World War II) to receive the honor.
