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.

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