Memorial for Vietnam War heroes may get upgrade
Spot left for Medal of Honor marking could get use soon
By Michael Hoffman Air Force Times • and John Andrew Prime jprime@gannett.com • November 2, 2008 2:00 am
A recently rededicated memorial to overlooked heroes of the Indochina War could get a significant overhaul soon.
A marker at the 8th Air Force Museum honoring the sacrifice of 19 airmen who served with the Barksdale-based 1st Combat Evaluation Group, also known as Combat Skyspot, soon could bear a symbol denoting that one of the lost airmen, Chief Master Sgt. Richard Etchberger, was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for bravery.
Etchberger lost his life saving three fellow service members fighting off waves of North Vietnamese commandos advancing on a top-secret U.S. radar station in the Laotian mountains in March 1968, but those details were omitted.
Instead, Pentagon officials told Cory Etchberger, then 9, that his father died in a helicopter accident. But he knew something was wrong when he and his family were secretly whisked into the Pentagon to accept the Air Force Cross his father was awarded posthumously.
But the United States wasn't openly fighting a war outside the Vietnams at that time, and so an act of bravery that clearly merited the Medal of Honor was downgraded, and efforts over the year to restore the request for the highest honor ran into bureaucratic roadblocks, including a statutory deadline on how long after an event a request can be made.
But last month, the House and Senate passed, and President George W. Bush signed, a Defense bill that waived the militations in this instance. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley has recommended Etchberger's Air Force Cross be upgraded to the Medal of Honor. Now it is up to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Bush to approve a renomination for the medal, first recommended in 1968 but denied by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson, said Col. Gerald H. Clayton, then the commander of 1043rd Radar Evaluation Squadron, Detachment 1.
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Well deserved long overdue honor, finally delivered. Having read the many reports regarding the circumstances on Phou Pha Thi and following the present day pursuit of those persistent to seal the honor upon this American Hero, I attest it is the finest collection of American spirit, courage and bravery.
ReplyDelete40 years later, "Etch" is still in command.