Return to Website
The Ivy Division Forum

WELCOME to THE IVY DIVISION Message Forum 
THIS website is a private SUPPORT SITE for 4th ID veterans, active duty soldiers, family members, friends and everyone who supports our troops no matter how you feel about our leaders. Troublemakers, gossips. trolls, liars, etc are NOT welcome here. Posts that defame, discuss ozone, humiliate and/or intimidate other posters or the webmaster will be deleted without notice or comment. Please read the rules on the Main Page, thank you!
Please visit our Chatroom, Guestbook, Guestmap, Photo Center, Calendar, Votecaster, Headline News, Today in History and Daily Cartoon page, too!
LINKS Page, under construction, coming soon!
Webmaster: Bob Poff, C-1-8, 1968-1969 robert8h@yahoo.com
Thank You for Visiting The Ivy Division.com!
Open 24 Hours a Day, 365 Days a Year
Friends of The Ivy Division
A.B.,HONORARY GRUNT!
jinks' www.vietnamvets.com messageboard
Jim Bury's Ivy Dragoons website

HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY CHELSEA! I wish I could be there in time to celebrate it with you, mum and the boys and madge, too!
Return to Website

  First
  Prev
  Reply
  Forum
Next  
Last  
Search this Forum:  
Viewing Page 1 of 1 (Total Posts: 2)


Author Comment    
SSGMike.Ivy

ssgmike.ivy@verizon.net

IP: 98.113.28.3

Jun 30, 08 - 11:09 AM 		Airman poised to get MoH for Laos mission

By Mike Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jun 30, 2008 12:21:30 EDT

Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. Etchberger may receive the Medal of Honor 40 years after he died on a Laotian mountaintop. Etchberger was working in Laos at a top secret radar station responsible for locating hundreds of North Vietnamese bombing targets.

In March 1968, more than 1,000 North Vietnamese soldiers surrounded the station, named Lima Site 85. Etchberger was the last to board the rescue helicopter dispatched to save the U.S. troops fighting off waves of mortars and artillery. An armor piercing round ripped through the bottom of the helicopter, hitting Etchberger.

He bled to death, but not before he was credited with saving the lives of three men he worked with.

Air Force officials recommended Etchberger for the Medal of Honor, but President Johnson couldn’t award it without revealing U.S. troops were stationed inside neutral Laos. Instead, Etchberger’s family received his Air Force Cross during a secret ceremony inside the Pentagon.

The 2009 defense authorization bill contains a section that would authorize Etchberger’s Medal of Honor. It passed in the House of Representatives in May, but still must be passed by the Senate before Bush can sign it into law.

This September a monument will be dedicated at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., to Etchberger and the 13 other men who died at Lima Site 85 in Laos.
SSGMike.Ivy


IP: 98.113.28.3

Jul 1st, 2008 - 6:10 AM 		Re: Airman poised to get MoH for Laos mission

sadly this is 40 years late, but I guess better late then never. Hopefully there are some family members alive to receive his Medal of Honor when issued.

RIP brother


  First
  Prev
  Reply
  Forum
Next  
Last  


powered by Powered by Bravenet bravenet.com