My latest project

LinkedIn friends I need your help! The picture on the left is my father's 2nd lieutenant commission photo prior to Vietnam, and the one on the left was his final picture before retiring as a Colonel.

This is where I need your help. My father was helicopter pilot during Vietnam and I'm working to get him the congressional medal of honor for one of his acts of heroism during one of his missions. I am doing this without his knowledge. I have his service records and we even have confirmation from one of the people he saved, but need help tracking down the other officer involved. 

My father found out about what I was doing and sent me the following narrative of events....

During the October-November 1967 time frame. I was the aircraft commander. The warrant officer on the right in the photo was the copilot. The other two are the enlisted crew.  While flying command and control for an infantry unit I had a colonel in the back with his interpreter.  The Colonel ask me over the intercom if I would make an emergency medical evacuation. He said he had wounded on the ground and medivacs would not go in because of the intense enemy fire. I told him I would go if he went with me but if he would not go then I would not go. He went with me. 

I landed under fire and got the wounded. Then we went in again at a near by site and got some more. The second time the colonel got out in the rice paddy to help load the wounded. I had to hover the helicopter because I could not sit it down in the muddy rice paddy. Shrapnel hit my leg so hard I thought my leg was blown off but I finally got nerve to look and saw I had not even a wound. A total of 6 wounded were recovered. 

After taking them to taunsaut in Saigon I shut down the helicopter to inspect it for damage. The colonel ask me for my service number and said he was going to write me up for the highest award he could get through channels. He said he was so scared while on the ground thinking I was going to leave him there.  I told him I was only doing my job. All told my crew of 4 and the colonel's crew of 2 and 6 wounded for a total of 12. 

The unit was the 17 th assault helicopter company. We were stationed at Long Bien. 

Don't know where any flight after action reports would be found. The crew could relate but I don't know their names. At least this is the correct bit of information.

I was that attitude that he and so many of "the silent generation" have that makes them so great! It was just recently he said that he regrets not telling the officer his name which is what prompted my project. I have talked to my connections in the Pentagon and DoD but don't have anyone in the proper areas to track down the other officer involved or navigate the process. 

Again I am doing this to get him the recognition he and so many others deserve for his service during the Vietnam war.