Kenneth Michael Kays

Kays left the Army while still a private first class. After returning to Illinois, Kays went on to struggle with drug addiction and mental health issues, due to the post-traumatic stress disorder that came from his service during the war. This culminated in Kays taking his own life at age 42 in 1991, after years of being troubled by these issues. He is buried in Maple Hill Cemetery, Fairfield, Illinois. In 2006, Randy K. Mills published a book, Troubled Hero: A Medal of Honor, Vietnam, and the War at Home, detailing Kays's life in Fairfield, Illinois through the Vietnam War. Mills compiled details from the battle at Fire Support Base Maureen, the battle in which Kays earned the Medal of Honor, from the histories as told by other soldiers who experienced it.

Denied status as a conscientious objector, Kays fled to Canada to avoid getting drafted for military service in Vietnam until the US Army guaranteed he would be able to serve as a medic. Kays joined the Army from Fairfield, Illinois in 1969, and by May 7, 1970, was serving as a private in the Headquarters Company of 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. During a firefight on that day, in Thừa Thiên–Huế Province, Republic of Vietnam, Kays repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire in order to treat wounded soldiers, even after losing his lower left leg to an explosion. He was subsequently promoted to private first class, and awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in November 1973.

Kenneth Michael Kays (September 22, 1949 – November 29, 1991) was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in the Vietnam War.