Medal of Honor (2018) s01e07 Episode Script
Richard L. Etchberger
[man.]
More than 40 million Americans have served in the United States armed forces.
Of those, fewer than 3,600 have been awarded the military's highest honor.
[loud thrum of tropical insects.]
[distant machine-gun fire.]
[enemy soldiers shout in distance.]
[enemy soldiers shout in distance.]
[distant gunfire.]
[distant gunfire continues.]
[Ronald Reagan.]
Where did we find such men? We find them where we've always found them, in our villages and towns, on our city streets, in our shops, and on our farms.
[Dwight H.
Johnson.]
summoned a degree of courage that stirs wonder and respect and an overpowering pride in all of us.
[George W.
Bush.]
It recognizes gallantry that goes above and beyond the call of duty.
[Barack Obama.]
We may not always hear of their success, but they are there in the thick of the fight, in the dark of night, achieving their mission.
Good evening, my fellow Americans.
Tonight I want to speak to you of peace in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
No other question so preoccupies our people.
[man.]
Toward the end of '67, there was already a lot of questioning about Vietnam: what were we doing there? Err, there was an anti-war movement.
There was also a major media offensive.
We were watching on TV, pitch battles going on.
[soldier.]
Okay [volley of rapid gunfire.]
We saw that on TV, and we knew, we're not winning the war.
How How can we win? [man.]
To win the war, the whole idea was to attack supplies in North Vietnam before it could get into South Vietnam.
Storage areas, bases, trails.
There were really four air wars going on in Southeast Asia.
There was the air war over South Vietnam.
There was the air war over North Vietnam.
There was the air war over Northern Laos, and then there was an air war over the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
But the air war in North Vietnam was a war of interdiction where we were attacking things where there are concentrations of troops and supplies.
In order to have that bomb hit the spot in the ground you wanted to attack, you find a radar that has a very accurate tracking capability.
[man.]
In 1968, it had a limited range.
So, we had to put this equipment on a site that was very close to the North Vietnamese border.
And it turned out there was this mountain in Laos.
It was oriented in the right direction.
But there was an international effort to keep Laos neutral, so you could not have military people operating in Laos.
The Air Force asked for volunteers from this pool of people.
They were a pretty tight-knit group.
They knew one another fairly well, and so, when it came time to implement this operation, 19 volunteers resigned from the Air Force and were hired as technicians, undercover, with a contract by Lockheed company.
And then they had taken off to Lima Site 85, and it was only when the presence of this capability began to hurt the North Vietnamese that they decided that they were gonna take it out.
[psychedelic rock music.]
[music continues through radio.]
How does everybody want their steaks? No Alright.
Anybody care? No? Okay.
Medium rare it is, then.
I don't wanna hear nothing about it later, boys.
[soldier.]
What'd they say, Etch? Can't get any choppers up here until morning.
They know there are a few thousand NVA soldiers gathering down there, yes? [soldier 2.]
My crew and I will take first shift and run defense, drop bombs around the base of the mountain all night.
Chief Etchberger was a senior non-commissioned officer.
We knew each other over the years in the military, but that was the first time I'd ever been stationed with him, and I respected him as a man.
He was good at what he did.
[Ronald.]
Chief Etchberger was raised in Pennsylvania.
His dad ran a five-and-dime store, which today, they're kinda like the dollar stores, you know, every town's got one.
He was an athlete, played basketball.
[Bruce.]
He believed in our government.
He believed in the cause for which we were fighting.
During the Vietnam War, the monsoon season in North Vietnam lasted basically from October through March.
Normal fighter strike missions were very difficult to carry out.
At Lima Site 85, these technicians could actually provide radar guidance to airplanes flying into North Vietnam.
[C.
R.
.]
Lima Site 85 became a very significant part of air combat missions over North Vietnam.
[footage narrator.]
Sixty miles southwest of Hanoi, F-105 pilots dropped six 500-pound bombs on the Long Tieng military area.
15 February, F-105s dropped 750-pound bombs during a road-cut mission near Banh Ta Byong, Laos.
A flight of 421st Squadron F-105s dropped bombs on a bridge 20 miles west of Dong Hoi.
From the ground, we would lock onto the aircraft with a radar signal, give him directions.
We was always within 50 to 100 feet of hitting our target.
[footage narrator.]
354th F-105 pilots attack a bridge near Ban Suk, Laos.
This was a highly classified operation, to keep Laos neutral.
There had been a conference of six different nations that hadcome together to say, "Okay, we're gonna assure that there's a neutral Laos.
" This was violated almost immediately by the North Vietnamese.
They were violating it and we were violating it, but we did not want to give North Vietnam an ability to exploit, publicly, that we were violating this treaty.
[reporter.]
Mr.
President, there has been growing concerns, sir, about the deepening U.
S.
involvement in combat in Laos.
As far as American manpower in Laos is concerned, there are none there at the present time on a combat basis.
Sheep-dipping.
There was a term, "being sheep-dipped.
" [C.
R.
.]
Farmers dip their sheep in disinfectant.
The idea is that you have a very hush-hush kind of an operation that you want civilians to do.
You take this military guy and you have them resign from the military.
Suddenly you go from being military to your civilian technician.
And you dip him in the disinfectant, and when he comes out the other side, he's clean.
[John.]
We became civilians, but I never had a break in military service, but there wasn't no chief or captain or anything else.
It was, "Hey, Dick!" "Hey, Stan, what are you doing?" You know, it was all civilians.
Nobody knew we was there.
[emphatic.]
I mean we weren't there.
Period.
We weren't there.
Let me look, boys.
[John.]
From the mountain top, we could see the enemy building a road coming towards us.
We'd drop bombs on that road every day or two and didn't deter 'em very much.
They just kep' on comin'.
[Bruce.]
Their only real security on the ground was way below them.
Hmong people, mountain people, who had been recruited into a mercenary army run by the CIA, this was a CIA army that was down there.
It wasn't a U.
S.
Military army.
[Ronald.]
Lima Site 85 had sheer cliffs on three sides to prevent the enemy from attacking the site, but, as that road progressed, it was supposed to be kinda the warning that said, when it gets within a certain area of the site, then it's time to evacuate the troops.
[Etch.]
Everyone good? - Yeah.
Good.
- Yeah.
[tense music.]
[rear soldier.]
Goddammit.
[sighs.]
[tense music gets louder.]
[Ronald.]
They had actually put two teams on the site so you could operate 24 hours a day.
So, while one team was in the vans controlling, the other team was normally "off duty," if you will, and Chief Master Sergeant Etchberger was part of the off-duty crew.
They went to the side of the cliff where they knew there were some big rocks, some ledges down over there, and they went there, for protection.
[insects thrum loudly.]
[wild animal calls.]
[soldier.]
Y'know Etch would stay in this damn war 'til it was over if he could.
Yeah.
It's 'cause he's a lunatic.
[both laugh.]
[sweeping classical music.]
[soldier.]
Y'know he's got a deal with the Air Force, right? As long as he's stationed in Laos, his son doesn't get stationed overseas.
- My pops would send me in his place.
- [laughs.]
[explosion.]
[John.]
The aircraft was flying right over the top of us to drop on the target down the side of the mountain.
[aircraft rumbles overhead.]
[explosion.]
[aircraft rumbling fades.]
NVA's too worried about dodging bombs than our sorry ass.
Yeah.
You're right.
[John.]
We was dropping bombs and at the bottom of the hills, there was people there supposedly defending us.
But it didn't work.
[machine-gun fire.]
[explosion.]
[machine-gun fire.]
Gish, get down here! - [machine-gun fire.]
- [enemy shouting.]
[gunfire and shouting continue.]
[machine-gun fire.]
We started hearing gunshots and voices that we couldn't understand.
Wasn't American voices.
They The enemy had got on top of the mountain.
Nobody's supposed to be able to get up there, but they were, so you knew that we'd been taken.
[tense music.]
We gotta help 'em.
They're gonna kill us, too.
[gunfire continues.]
I'm goin' up.
Cover me.
You what? Cover you? Fuck! Fuck! Look! Well, I mean, none of these men would have had, I mean, serious combat training.
[tense music.]
[John.]
We had three or four days, maybe, out on the shooting range.
We had nothing else.
Air Force guys did not have training like an infantryman in the Army or a Marine infantryman.
They weren't ever intended to fight.
[music becomes more tense.]
[enemy voices.]
[panting.]
[John.]
It was just a matter of when they're gonna get to us and kill us because they weren't taking any prisoners, that's for sure.
They was shooting everybody between the eyes.
Etch, what are you doin'? He found a place to hide under a rock outcropping by hisself.
So, I don't know why he stayed there rather than coming on down under there.
He just found a place to hide.
- [enemy voices.]
- [scrub rustles.]
We didn't have no plan.
[chuckles.]
We were just there.
I mean You know, it wasn't supposed to happen, so who's prepared? So you stay where you're at and hope for the best.
[slow footsteps.]
[Ronald.]
Chief Master Sergeant Etchberger basically needed to make the decision to save the lives of his troops, which meant him exposing himself to the enemy.
And again, remember, these guys were not expected to be engaged in hand-to-hand combat or personal combat.
[groans with effort.]
[gunfire ceases.]
[panting.]
Etch! Run! [groaning with effort.]
[gunfire continues.]
Grenade! [John.]
They was throwing hand grenades down at us and Etch'd pick 'em up and throw 'em back.
So, he did what he was doing.
They're gonna go off anyhow, it's gonna do the same amount of damage, so, maybe I can get it back up there [groans.]
I got shot in both legs and broke my right one.
It's gonna go off! Gish was fatally wounded.
Monk was dead.
Daniel was shot in the legs.
[groans.]
[silence.]
[woman laughs softly.]
[woman.]
You know, Steven asked if you're gonna be his real dad.
[Etch.]
I just want him to know that he'll be my son.
Not my stepson, my son.
I see it.
That's why I'm marrying you.
- Oh! - Mm-hmm.
- That's why? - Mm-hmm.
[gentle classical music.]
[Etch sighs.]
[explosion.]
[volley of gunfire.]
[groans.]
[relentless machine-gun fire.]
I think Sliz is gone! [groans.]
[volley of gunfire.]
[groans.]
- How're your legs? - [moans.]
[gasping.]
They're bad! They're bad! I'm sorry.
Hey! Listen to me.
[louder.]
Listen to me! There's only NVA up there right now.
Let's do one last bombing run, wipe them out, and take out the camp, alright? - They're gonna kill us, too! - Hey, listen to me.
At least we'll take out some of them with us.
Come on.
- Call position.
- [groans in pain.]
This is Camp Commando.
We're being overrun.
Need immediate air support.
Do you copy? Over.
Fuck! [groans.]
[machine-gun fire.]
Again! Hit it again! Do you copy? Over.
Camp Commando, bombers en route.
Send location.
Copy? Tell 'em to hit the top of the hill.
The top of the hill! Just stay off of us! The top of the hill.
We're the northern side the mountain.
- D'you copy? Over.
- Copy.
Find some cover.
Alright.
[plane rumbling.]
Okay.
Down! Down! Down! Down! [plane rumbles overhead.]
[explosion.]
- [groans.]
- [Etch.]
Sliz! - [cries in pain.]
- Sliz, are you alright? - I was standing there - Help is on the way, man.
Help is on the way.
Come on! [groans.]
[distant explosions.]
[dawn chorus.]
It was like the North Vietnamese thought everybody was gone on the ledge, and so they just sorta ceased their efforts to get down.
And so you had these three guys that were on the ledge until daylight.
There was a rescue force that had been put together, so it was gonna come in and evacuate the people that morning.
But in the meantime, there was this Air America pilot in a UH-1.
- Oh, boy.
- So you were a pilot with Air America huh? - I think so.
Yeah.
- Okay.
He was the master and I was his slave.
- You wanna say that louder? - Yeah! - I didn't hear you.
- No, we were a crew.
[Ken.]
Yeah.
Air America was a contract company owned by the Central Intelligence Agency.
[Ken.]
One of our missions there in Laos was to transport Laotian soldiers to various mountaintop sites, but this particular day, we heard a lot of chatter on the radio.
This is Camp Commando.
Two men injured.
Need immediate evac.
[Ken.]
So, I looked at Rusty and we didn't exchange any words, but we just knew we were gonna go in there and see if we could pick up these guys.
[groans in pain.]
Listen! [distant helicopter blades.]
[radio.]
Anyone copy? Repeat.
Does anyone on the mountain copy? We're on the northern slope.
Two men injured.
Need immediate evac.
[chopper thrumming.]
Hey! We're at your six o'clock.
Northern slope.
Turn around and look back.
[Ken.]
There was a guy on the radio.
His name was John Daniel.
I didn't know John.
John didn't know us, but he kinda directed us in.
Told the chopper, said, "We're on this side of the mountain.
" They said, "Yep.
We'll be right there.
" And they come right in and hovered over us and then he started getting us evacuated.
Let's get the hell outta here! [Ken.]
I said, "Look, I'm gonna try and position the rotor over the ledge of a cliff," so that I could get as much ground cushion and relieve the strain on the engine.
So, that's what I did, but I could not land.
[chopper thrumming.]
[rousing music.]
Stay there! Sit! [machine-gun fire.]
[Ken.]
Everything seems to be routine until you start receiving ground fire.
And then your adrenaline starts getting to you, and so you wanna get outta there.
[chopper thrumming overhead.]
[enemy fire ceases.]
[dramatic music.]
Go! I'm right behind you! Chief exposes himself to make sure that Daniel, who is wounded in the legs, gets hoisted up.
Come on, let's go.
You're next! Hey, Etch! We can both fit! I'll cover.
You go! Go, up! Go! We brought another guy up.
Well, by this time, the aircraft is leaning like that and I'm thinking, I'm running out of cyclic displacement.
Okay? Control.
At that time, I asked Rusty, I said, "How much longer do you think this is gonna go on?" [man shouting.]
Etch! Wait! - [Etch.]
Hey! - [man.]
Wait! Chill! [Etch.]
Get down here! All of a sudden, running down the trail comes Husband.
A group of the Americans had taken refuge and around some rocks, and at one point, the North Vietnamese sappers came in and shot these people, but Husband played dead.
Let's go! [pilot.]
Welcome aboard! Go! Daniel! Eyes open! [Rusty.]
Etchberger, he was the last man up, which shows good leadership.
It was his duty, in his mind, that "I've gotta do this.
I've gotta save my troops.
" And he did one hell of a job.
Papapapapap! You never forget this sound when a bullet's piercing metal.
[poignant music.]
When they got me awake, I said, "Where's Etch? I wanna talk to him.
I wanna tell him thank you.
" Said, "He's dead.
" I said, "No.
He can't be dead, he wasn't shot.
" And they told me what happened, that he caught one round through the bottom of the chopper and bled out.
Hit a large vein, [voice wavers.]
and he bled out before we got to the next landing site.
And I couldn't believe it.
I couldn't believe it.
I still hardly believe it to this day.
March of '68, we get a phone call at the house in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.
I answered the phone, and it was Mom and Cory and I sitting there.
The gentleman on the other end said, "Can I speak to Mrs.
 Etchberger, please?" She dropped the phone and fell on the floor and she was crying, and she said, you know, "Boys, your father's been killed.
" [narrator.]
Etchberger had bled out mid-air, surrounded by the soldiers he'd saved.
He died putting others first, which was also the way he'd lived.
[man.]
When they got married, I was 11 years old.
He raised me from that point on and treated me as his own.
[narrator.]
At the time Lima Site 85 fell, Etchberger's stepson Steve was all grown up, married and living in California, awaiting the birth of his first child.
[Steve.]
We went into a hospital for Traci's birth at midnight or so the night before, and Traci was born at 7:14 in the morning.
[woman.]
They called my grandmother to let her know that I was born and she was so excited, and then a couple hours later, my dad got the phone call that my grandfather had been killed.
Traci was born the day he died.
It had to have been really hard for everybody, but my grandmother said that I was the angel that Dick sent for her, so that we passed, and I was her angel, and that's how she always put it.
For a family, one life lost even as another was coming into the world, a baby, who would inherit a proud but already complicated legacy because even as Etchberger's passing was reported to the wider world, its true circumstances were being obscured.
[Cory.]
The local newspaper, on March 22nd of 1968, reportsthat he's been killed in a helicopter accident.
That's what our mother tells us.
It was the birth of a fiction that would live for decades, echoed even at the highest levels inside the Pentagon where the family was welcomed.
It was a ceremony so secret that it was never even put on my dad's records.
[narrator.]
Chief Master Sergeant Richard Etchberger had been nominated for the Medal of Honor, but because his mission had been secret, such a public form of recognition was considered impossible.
[Rich.]
They presented the Air Force Cross, the second-highest award you can receive, and Mom, when she came home, took that medal and she put it in the back of her closet.
I never saw that again while she was alive.
[Traci.]
Definitely I did not know anything about his story at all.
My grandmother never said anything to me.
[Rich.]
She never talked about Dad.
She never shared any information with us about where he was or what he had done.
[narrator.]
A covert operation claiming victims long after it was over, including a widow put in an impossible position, forced to keep her husband's heroism from the children suffering so acutely in his absence.
[Rich.]
You know, as cool a role model as he was up 'til ten years old, I would love to have had a relationship, like now, even.
So I I feel like I was robbed of that.
So, I was angry as a young kid.
You know, I remember thinking about this and just being, "Why did we have this this damn war?" [narrator.]
His brother Steve, though, had been all set to follow in his father's footsteps.
Two weeks after I joined the Air Force, I got my draft notice.
[Rich.]
He got his orders, packed his stuff, got on the plane.
The plane was on the flight line, and someone must have checked the passenger list.
The plane turned around, stopped at the gate, Steve got off, the plane left.
I never went over and I didn't know why.
[narrator.]
The truth would take decades to reveal itself.
It wouldn't happen until after their mother had passed away, taking the secret of their father's mission with her.
I wish we woulda sat and had that talk of what they had said and what her thoughts were on it, before she passed away.
And you know what? I didn't ask.
I wish I had.
But I I never asked my mom.
[narrator.]
A year after Catherine Etchberger's death, her sons would finally learn about their father's heroism.
The truth revealed in an astonishing encounter with the author of a book about Lima Site 85.
Tim Castle gets a hold of Rich, says, "Would you like to see an advanced manuscript of my book coming up, and would you like to know about really what happened to your dad?" And so there's lots of secrecy here that nobody really knew about.
And so, Rich spends a couple hours sitting at his dining room table.
It might sound a little corny, but when I say I went through a box of tissues, I'm serious.
There was a lot of emotions that came out that night when I was listening to Tim talk about my dad.
Rich finally calls me and says, "It's not what we thought.
" Mom hid that Air Force Cross, not because she didn't want the pain for the kids to see it, she hid that Air Force Cross so people didn't ask questions and didn't put her in a difficult situation.
So that is really the point at which we understand what really happened.
To find out later on that he actually it wasn't a random event.
He actually died saving his guys.
That makes you think about a lotta things.
[Steve.]
He thought he was doing right for this country.
That was his goal, to try to stop this war.
[narrator.]
A fuller picture was emerging, and not just because of the book.
We have a letter that he wrote to his friend, Ed Perrigo, and Ed shared this letter with us.
[narrator.]
"It is the most challenging job I'll ever have in my life.
I love it.
Travel all the time.
Hate to be away from home, but believe in the job.
And as I said, just love it.
" So that's what all those guys up there thought at that mountain.
They weren't worried about the political unrest and the political ramifications of what was gonna happen.
They were asked, "Will you volunteer for a mission to save American lives and bring an early end to the Vietnam War?" And they said, "Yes.
" And that's why those guys stay on that mountain, even though they know the North Vietnamese are coming.
Because they think it's an important enough mission to stay here one more night.
[narrator.]
And as for Etchberger's son, Steve, who hadn't been allowed to spend even one night in the conflict, the truth about that was about to be revealed, too.
[Steve.]
After all this is said and done, one of the people writing the book had my records pulled and found that as long as he was on this mission, I was not to go over there.
[Traci.]
It was because of the nature of his mission that my grandfather was able to get that put in my dad's file in order to stay here, and I'm very grateful for that because just that one thing, my life would have been so different.
[narrator.]
Etchberger, who saved his men while on a secret mission, had secretly saved his son as well.
But for a family reeling from so many revelations, there was yet one more surprise in store.
The phone rings and I answer the phone, and the woman said, "This is Katie Johnson from President Obama's office.
Would you please hold for a call?" [chuckles.]
"Yeah, of course.
Yes.
" He said, "Hey, the President called.
" And I was like, "Wow!" I just broke down.
[narrator.]
With the truth now out about Etchberger's actions at Lima Site 85, it was recommended that his Air Force Cross be upgraded to the Medal of Honor.
Going to the White House was like riding a motorcycle through an art gallery.
That is, you sort of see things going by, but you never really get much detail.
You're walking around the White House and looking at the pictures and the photographs, and trying to take it all in.
And the President and Mrs.
Obama are making small talk with everybody.
It's really a neat situation.
They were super-friendly people.
I knew that I was going to accept the medal, so I was very, very nervous.
At the end of the time we spent in the Oval Office with the President and his wife, the President kinda pulled me aside and put his hand on my shoulder and he said, "Rich, let's try not to drop that thing up front.
" And he kinda smiled at me and I kinda, at that point, I just kinda went, "I can do this.
" Good afternoon.
And on behalf of Michelle and myself, welcome to the White House.
Of all the military decorations that our nation can bestow, the highest is the Medal of Honor.
For risking one's life in action, for serving above and beyond the call of duty.
Today, we present the Medal of Honor to an American who displayed such gallantry, more than four decades ago, Chief Master Sergeant Richard L.
Etchberger.
Sadly, Dick's wife Catherine did not live to see this moment.
But today, Steve and Richard and Cory, today, your nation finally acknowledges and fully honors your father's bravery.
Because, even though it has been 42 years, it's never too late to do the right thing.
So please join me in welcoming Steve, Richard, and Cory [Rich.]
The President called Cory and Steve and I up onto the stage and shook hands, said a few words to each one of us, and everybody else in the room stood up and started clapping, and that's when I thought, I'm gonna lose it, at that point because it was just you could feel the love and the respect and how everybody there was there for a reason, and that reason was our dad's sacrifice.
[applause.]
[Cory.]
It wasn't about us, it was about the fact we were finally gonna be able to, um [clicks tongue.]
make it right for him.
Um Just such a great honor to make sure that Dad got this.
[narrator.]
An act of heroism by one man spurring a search for meaning and purpose in others.
Look at those eyes! He was, like, so serious.
[Traci.]
A lotta people would've thought that would have been the end of our story, and instead it was the beginning.
[speaker.]
Let's give a warm welcome to the Etchberger Foundation.
[narrator.]
Today, through the Etchberger Foundation, the family works with schools to encourage young people to pursue service and leadership with the message that any one person can affect many.
[drill sergeant issues command.]
Etchberger's legacy also endures at the Air Force's school for non-commissioned officers.
[speaker.]
The recipient of the Chief Etchberger Team Award for Class 17 Delta is Flight 27.
[thunderous applause, cheering.]
[narrator.]
The Etchberger Award honors teamwork.
The recipients proving dedication not just to academics and fitness, but to community involvement.
It's the only team award given by the Air Force.
I appreciate everybody's service to our country, and I know Dad would be proud of your service, without a doubt.
One of those whom Etchberger saved is also hoping, in his own way, to carry a hero's legacy forward.
Without him, none of us would be alive today.
So, 11 March, 1968, is my birthday, along with I have a real birthday, but that is the first day of the rest of my life.
There is something that God has got for me to do still on this green Earth, or I would not be here today.
I don't know exactly what it is but there's something that I've still gotta do before it's my time.
It's the only reason that I think that I'm here.
From a secret mission in one of America's darkest conflicts, one man's brave act finally brought into the light, his story now able to teach, inspire and empower the next generation.
[stirring orchestral music.]
- Mr.
Potter, your turn to talk.
- You say there are no combat forces in Laos.
How do you regard the Airmen who bombed the Ho Chi Minh Trail from bases in Thailand and Vietnam? Would you regard those as combat forces? When we consider the situation in Laos, I think President Kennedy, in his first major television speech, which we all remember, in 1962, put it very well.
He pointed out that Laos was potentially the key to what would happen in Thailand as well as in Vietnam and the balance of Southeast Asia.
Now, Laos relates very much to Vietnam because the Ho Chi Minh Trail runs through Laos.
It is necessary, under those circumstances, that the United States take cognizance of that, and we do have aerial reconnaissance, uh, we do have perhaps some other activities.
I won't discuss those other activities at this time.
What's really ironic about this whole thing, I flew almost 1,000 hours in the Army in Vietnam before I got out.
And in that almost 1,000 hours, I never took a hit.
Okay? When I went with Air America, the first year I was there, I brought aircraft back to the main operating base that looked like a piece of Swiss cheese.
I mean, the war up there was intense - and Rusty will verify that.
- Yeah.
We've had a lot of guys that we lost over there because of enemy ground fire.
I've always claimed that I had 187 hits in the nine years or whatever it was I was over there.
And usually it was in groups of five.
Occasionally, there would be one, but, like I say, they used to call me "Magnet Ass" for some reason.
- [clears throat.]
You know? - [Ken laughs.]
I had a reputation for being shot at a lot.
Yeah, if I'd known that, I'd never have picked you as a crew chief.
[laughs.]
This photo's got a mind of its own.
Might want to roll up by itself.
But this is the so-called secret base of Long Tieng, manned by the CIA, the Central Intelligence Agency.
This is also referred to as Lima Site 20 Alternate.
This runway that you see right here is oriented east and west.
This is the area where we parked our Air America choppers right in here.
But we used to have an Air America hostel right here, where we would have dinner.
But we had positions, Lao soldier positions, all along the ridge lines here, okay.
And what they would do, they would provide perimeter defense.
What we did, we'd take off to the north, we'd fly for about 15-20 minutes to a place called Muang Soui, and we'd kinda turn the corner and fly up to the northeast to Lima Site 85.
So it was about a 40-, 45-minute ride in the Huey, what I was flying.
Very I mean there was one time where we exceeded the traffic flow of O'Hare.
[laughs.]
There was that much activity there during the height of the war.
When you live on a mountain that closely with each other, you know, in those close quarters, you know, you become not just friends, but I think I've never been there.
I assume you become brothers.
I mean, from what I hear from everybody who's ever served under those close combat conditions, you're not there to kill people, you're there to because you love your nation, because you love each other.
I talked to his son, Cory, when we met at the Medal of Honor ceremony in Washington, in 2010, I think it was.
And we didn't exchange many words at all.
There was one thing that I wanted to get to I wanted to relay to Cory, was that I was sorry that he had to, uh die on my watch, so to speak.
And Cory told me, he said, "Ken, forget it.
 It's over.
" He said, "Get rid of that memory.
" So, I it's not something that I harbored, you know, for all these years, but I just wanted to unload and let Cory know that I'm sorry.
If I had maneuvered the helicopter a little bit to the left or a little bit to the right, or forward or back he may have been with us today, but fate happens.
So, that's about the only words that I've had with Cory, really.
The one thing about Rusty Irons that I wanna tell you about is I met him, I'm gonna say it may have been about, um 2000 after the Medal of Honor ceremony.
He was at the Medal of Honor ceremony, and I met him again two years later, I think.
We didn't get a whole lotta chance to talk to Rusty at the ceremony, but I had some private time with him later, um, and he was really taken aback by what I said to him.
I said, "Thanks for saving Dad.
" Because he did.
You know, he didn't know he was gonna die.
I've always tried to live up to the the example that he set.
Um, certainly, when you find out, uh what happened later on, that makes your looks in the mirror a little different [laughs.]
To try to You know, you wonder "Could I measure up that kind of uh, to what he did?" And you always hope for that, but you don't know until you're tested.
And I think that I think that people are tested all the time in their lives.
Uh And choosing to do the right thing, it doesn't always have to be in front of gunfire and those kinds of things.
I wrote a letter to Colonel Wade Johnson at the Barnes Center here at Maxwell-Gunter, who owned the Senior NCO Academy.
And I proposed that we establish an award in Chief Etchberger's honor.
First of all, the mission was very near and dear to my heart, and I wanted his memory to be preserved, and also to perpetuate his legacy.
It's interesting when we talk about Airmen and about their leadership qualities, and what they do for the Air Force, and a little bit in the graduation, we heard Chief Mills talk about one stripe is for the Airman and one stripe is for the family.
If it were not for the families and the people that support the Airmen, there's no way this Air Force would be as great as it is.
And so to have the Etchberger boys essentially belong to the Air Force, that's a great honor.
It is just one of those outstanding, brilliant things about the Etchbergers, where they really are continuing those characteristics their dad exhibited at Lima Site 85.
- You bet.
- Congratulations.
You know, we have the Airman's Creed and we talk about a tradition of honor, and a legacy of valor, that's what this is.
To be able to look back at heroes like Chief Etchberger and the sacrifices that he made, helps reinforce that in our lives.
- [yelps and cheers.]
- [thunderous applause.]
For the Etchberger family, this is a day more than 40 years in the making.
Cory was just nine years old, but he can still remember that winter in 1968 when he, his brothers, and his mom, were escorted to the Pentagon.
The war in Vietnam was still raging.
Dick Etchberger had given his life earlier that year.
Now, his family was being welcomed by the Air Force Chief of Staff.
In a small, private ceremony, Dick was recognized with the highest honor that the Air Force can give, the Air Force Cross.
These three sons were told that their dad was a hero, that he had died while saving his fellow Airmen.
But they weren't told much else.
Their father's work was classified, and for years, that's all they really knew.
Then, nearly two decades later, the phone rang.
It was the Air Force, and their father's mission was finally being declassified.
And that's when they learned the truth, that their father had given his life not in Vietnam, but in neighboring Laos.
That's when they began to learn the true measure of their father's heroism.
Dick Etchberger was a radar technician and he had been handpicked for a secret assignment.
With a small team of men, he served at the summit of one of the tallest mountains in Laos, more than a mile high, literally above the clouds.
They manned a tiny radar station, guiding American pilots in the air campaign against North Vietnam.
Dick and his crew believed that they could help turn the tide of the war, perhaps even end it.
And that's why North Vietnamese forces were determined to shut it down.
They sent their planes to strafe the Americans as they worked.
They moved in their troops and eventually, Dick and his team could look through their binoculars and see that their mountain was surrounded by thousands of North Vietnamese troops.
Dick and his crew, at that point, had a decision to make.
Ask to be evacuated or continue the mission for another day.
They believed that no one could possibly scale the mountain's steep cliffs and they believed in their work.
So they stayed.
They continued their mission.
There were 19 Americans on the mountain that evening.
When their shift was over, Dick and his four men moved down to a small, rocky ledge on a safer side of the mountain.
And then, during the night, the enemy attacked.
Somehow, fighters scaled the cliffs and overran the summit.
Down the side of the mountain, Dick and his men were now trapped on that ledge.
The enemy lobbed down grenade after grenade, hour after hour.
Dick and his men would grab those grenades and throw them back or kick them into the valley below.
But the grenades kept coming.
One Airman was killed, and then another.
A third Airman was wounded, then another.
Eventually, Dick was the only man standing.
As a technician, he had no formal combat training.
In fact, he had only recently been issued a rifle.
But Dick Etchberger was the very definition of an NCO, a leader determined to take care of his men.
When the enemy started moving down the rocks, Dick fought them off.
When it looked like the ledge would be overrun, he called for airstrikes within yards of his own position, shaking the mountain and clearing the way for a rescue.
And in the morning light, an American helicopter came into view.
Richard Etchberger lived the Airman's Creed, to never leave an Airman behind, to never falter, to never fail.
So, as the helicopter hovered above and lowered its sling, Dick loaded his wounded men, one by one, each time exposing himself to enemy fire.
And when another Airman suddenly rushed forward after eluding the enemy all night, Dick loaded him, too.
And finally, himself.
They had made it off the mountain.
And that's when it happened.
The helicopter began to peel away, a burst of gunfire erupted below, Dick was wounded, and by the time they landed at the nearest base, he was gone.
Of those 19 men on the mountain that night, only seven made it out alive.
Three of them owed their lives to the actions of Dick Etchberger.
Today, we're honored to be joined by one of them, Mr.
John Daniel.
But today also marks another chapter in a larger story of our nation finally honoring that generation of Vietnam veterans, who served with dedication and courage, but all too often, were shunned when they came home, which was a disgrace that must never happen again.
A few years ago, an Airman who never even knew Dick Etchberger read about his heroism and felt he deserved something more.
So he wrote his congressman, who made it his mission to get this done.
Today, we thank that Airman, retired Master Sergeant Robert Dilley, and that Congressman, Earl Pomeroy, who along with Congressman Holden made this day possible.
Sadly, Dick's wife Catherine did not live to see this moment.
But today, Steve and Richard and Cory, today, your nation finally acknowledges, and fully honors your father's bravery.
Because even though it has been 42 years, it's never too late to do the right thing.
And it's never too late to pay tribute to our Vietnam veterans and their families.
In recent years, Dick's story has become known and Air Force bases have honored him with streets and buildings in his name.
And at the base where he trained so long ago in Barksdale Barksdale in Louisiana, there's a granite monument with an empty space next to his name, and that space can finally be etched with the words "Medal of Honor.
" But the greatest memorial of all to Dick Etchberger is the spirit that we feel here today, the love that inspired him to serve, love for his country, and love for his family.
The most eloquent expression of that devotion are the words that he wrote himself to a friend back home just months before he gave his life to our nation.
"I hate to be away from home," he wrote, from that small base above the clouds, "but I believe in the job.
" He said, "It is the most challenging job I'll ever have in my life.
" And then he added, "I love it.
" Our nation endures because there are patriots like Chief Master Sergeant Richard Etchberger, and our troops who are serving as we speak, who love this nation and defend it.
Their legacy lives on because their families and fellow citizens preserve it.
And as Americans, we remain worthy of their example only so long as we honor it, not merely with the medals that we present, but by remaining true to the values and freedoms for which they fight.
So please join me in welcoming Steve, Richard, and Cory for the reading of the citation.
[speaker.]
The President of the United States of America, authorized by act of Congress, March 3rd, 1863, has awarded, in the name of the Congress, the Medal of Honor to Chief Master Sergeant Richard L.
Etchberger, United States Air Force, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity, at the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty.
Chief Master Sergeant Richard L.
Etchberger distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism, on March 11th, 1968, in the country of Laos, while assigned to Ground Radar Superintendent, Detachment 1, 1043rd Radar Evacuation Squadron.
On that day, Chief Etchberger and his team of technicians were manning a top-secret defensive position at Lima Site 85, when the base was overrun by an enemy ground force.
Receiving sustained and withering heavy-artillery attacks directly upon his unit's position, Chief Etchberger's entire crew lay dead or severely wounded.
Despite having received little or no combat training, Chief Etchberger single-handedly held off the enemy with an M-16, while simultaneously directing air strikes into the area and calling for air rescue.
Because of his fierce defense, and heroic and selfless actions, he was able to deny the enemy access to his position and save the lives of his remaining crew.
With the arrival of the rescue aircraft, Chief Etchberger, without hesitation, repeatedly and deliberately risked his own life, exposing himself to heavy enemy fire, in order to place three surviving, wounded comrades into rescue slings hanging from the hovering helicopter, waiting to airlift them to safety.
With his remaining crew safely aboard, Chief Etchberger finally climbed into the evacuation sling himself, only to be fatally wounded by enemy ground fire as he was being raised into the aircraft.
Chief Etchberger's bravery and determination in the face of persistent enemy fire and overwhelming odds, are in keeping with the highest standards of performance and traditions of military service.
Chief Etchberger's gallantry, self-sacrifice, and profound concern for his fellow men, at risk of his life, above and beyond the call of duty, reflect the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.
[applause.]
More than 40 million Americans have served in the United States armed forces.
Of those, fewer than 3,600 have been awarded the military's highest honor.
[loud thrum of tropical insects.]
[distant machine-gun fire.]
[enemy soldiers shout in distance.]
[enemy soldiers shout in distance.]
[distant gunfire.]
[distant gunfire continues.]
[Ronald Reagan.]
Where did we find such men? We find them where we've always found them, in our villages and towns, on our city streets, in our shops, and on our farms.
[Dwight H.
Johnson.]
summoned a degree of courage that stirs wonder and respect and an overpowering pride in all of us.
[George W.
Bush.]
It recognizes gallantry that goes above and beyond the call of duty.
[Barack Obama.]
We may not always hear of their success, but they are there in the thick of the fight, in the dark of night, achieving their mission.
Good evening, my fellow Americans.
Tonight I want to speak to you of peace in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
No other question so preoccupies our people.
[man.]
Toward the end of '67, there was already a lot of questioning about Vietnam: what were we doing there? Err, there was an anti-war movement.
There was also a major media offensive.
We were watching on TV, pitch battles going on.
[soldier.]
Okay [volley of rapid gunfire.]
We saw that on TV, and we knew, we're not winning the war.
How How can we win? [man.]
To win the war, the whole idea was to attack supplies in North Vietnam before it could get into South Vietnam.
Storage areas, bases, trails.
There were really four air wars going on in Southeast Asia.
There was the air war over South Vietnam.
There was the air war over North Vietnam.
There was the air war over Northern Laos, and then there was an air war over the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
But the air war in North Vietnam was a war of interdiction where we were attacking things where there are concentrations of troops and supplies.
In order to have that bomb hit the spot in the ground you wanted to attack, you find a radar that has a very accurate tracking capability.
[man.]
In 1968, it had a limited range.
So, we had to put this equipment on a site that was very close to the North Vietnamese border.
And it turned out there was this mountain in Laos.
It was oriented in the right direction.
But there was an international effort to keep Laos neutral, so you could not have military people operating in Laos.
The Air Force asked for volunteers from this pool of people.
They were a pretty tight-knit group.
They knew one another fairly well, and so, when it came time to implement this operation, 19 volunteers resigned from the Air Force and were hired as technicians, undercover, with a contract by Lockheed company.
And then they had taken off to Lima Site 85, and it was only when the presence of this capability began to hurt the North Vietnamese that they decided that they were gonna take it out.
[psychedelic rock music.]
[music continues through radio.]
How does everybody want their steaks? No Alright.
Anybody care? No? Okay.
Medium rare it is, then.
I don't wanna hear nothing about it later, boys.
[soldier.]
What'd they say, Etch? Can't get any choppers up here until morning.
They know there are a few thousand NVA soldiers gathering down there, yes? [soldier 2.]
My crew and I will take first shift and run defense, drop bombs around the base of the mountain all night.
Chief Etchberger was a senior non-commissioned officer.
We knew each other over the years in the military, but that was the first time I'd ever been stationed with him, and I respected him as a man.
He was good at what he did.
[Ronald.]
Chief Etchberger was raised in Pennsylvania.
His dad ran a five-and-dime store, which today, they're kinda like the dollar stores, you know, every town's got one.
He was an athlete, played basketball.
[Bruce.]
He believed in our government.
He believed in the cause for which we were fighting.
During the Vietnam War, the monsoon season in North Vietnam lasted basically from October through March.
Normal fighter strike missions were very difficult to carry out.
At Lima Site 85, these technicians could actually provide radar guidance to airplanes flying into North Vietnam.
[C.
R.
.]
Lima Site 85 became a very significant part of air combat missions over North Vietnam.
[footage narrator.]
Sixty miles southwest of Hanoi, F-105 pilots dropped six 500-pound bombs on the Long Tieng military area.
15 February, F-105s dropped 750-pound bombs during a road-cut mission near Banh Ta Byong, Laos.
A flight of 421st Squadron F-105s dropped bombs on a bridge 20 miles west of Dong Hoi.
From the ground, we would lock onto the aircraft with a radar signal, give him directions.
We was always within 50 to 100 feet of hitting our target.
[footage narrator.]
354th F-105 pilots attack a bridge near Ban Suk, Laos.
This was a highly classified operation, to keep Laos neutral.
There had been a conference of six different nations that hadcome together to say, "Okay, we're gonna assure that there's a neutral Laos.
" This was violated almost immediately by the North Vietnamese.
They were violating it and we were violating it, but we did not want to give North Vietnam an ability to exploit, publicly, that we were violating this treaty.
[reporter.]
Mr.
President, there has been growing concerns, sir, about the deepening U.
S.
involvement in combat in Laos.
As far as American manpower in Laos is concerned, there are none there at the present time on a combat basis.
Sheep-dipping.
There was a term, "being sheep-dipped.
" [C.
R.
.]
Farmers dip their sheep in disinfectant.
The idea is that you have a very hush-hush kind of an operation that you want civilians to do.
You take this military guy and you have them resign from the military.
Suddenly you go from being military to your civilian technician.
And you dip him in the disinfectant, and when he comes out the other side, he's clean.
[John.]
We became civilians, but I never had a break in military service, but there wasn't no chief or captain or anything else.
It was, "Hey, Dick!" "Hey, Stan, what are you doing?" You know, it was all civilians.
Nobody knew we was there.
[emphatic.]
I mean we weren't there.
Period.
We weren't there.
Let me look, boys.
[John.]
From the mountain top, we could see the enemy building a road coming towards us.
We'd drop bombs on that road every day or two and didn't deter 'em very much.
They just kep' on comin'.
[Bruce.]
Their only real security on the ground was way below them.
Hmong people, mountain people, who had been recruited into a mercenary army run by the CIA, this was a CIA army that was down there.
It wasn't a U.
S.
Military army.
[Ronald.]
Lima Site 85 had sheer cliffs on three sides to prevent the enemy from attacking the site, but, as that road progressed, it was supposed to be kinda the warning that said, when it gets within a certain area of the site, then it's time to evacuate the troops.
[Etch.]
Everyone good? - Yeah.
Good.
- Yeah.
[tense music.]
[rear soldier.]
Goddammit.
[sighs.]
[tense music gets louder.]
[Ronald.]
They had actually put two teams on the site so you could operate 24 hours a day.
So, while one team was in the vans controlling, the other team was normally "off duty," if you will, and Chief Master Sergeant Etchberger was part of the off-duty crew.
They went to the side of the cliff where they knew there were some big rocks, some ledges down over there, and they went there, for protection.
[insects thrum loudly.]
[wild animal calls.]
[soldier.]
Y'know Etch would stay in this damn war 'til it was over if he could.
Yeah.
It's 'cause he's a lunatic.
[both laugh.]
[sweeping classical music.]
[soldier.]
Y'know he's got a deal with the Air Force, right? As long as he's stationed in Laos, his son doesn't get stationed overseas.
- My pops would send me in his place.
- [laughs.]
[explosion.]
[John.]
The aircraft was flying right over the top of us to drop on the target down the side of the mountain.
[aircraft rumbles overhead.]
[explosion.]
[aircraft rumbling fades.]
NVA's too worried about dodging bombs than our sorry ass.
Yeah.
You're right.
[John.]
We was dropping bombs and at the bottom of the hills, there was people there supposedly defending us.
But it didn't work.
[machine-gun fire.]
[explosion.]
[machine-gun fire.]
Gish, get down here! - [machine-gun fire.]
- [enemy shouting.]
[gunfire and shouting continue.]
[machine-gun fire.]
We started hearing gunshots and voices that we couldn't understand.
Wasn't American voices.
They The enemy had got on top of the mountain.
Nobody's supposed to be able to get up there, but they were, so you knew that we'd been taken.
[tense music.]
We gotta help 'em.
They're gonna kill us, too.
[gunfire continues.]
I'm goin' up.
Cover me.
You what? Cover you? Fuck! Fuck! Look! Well, I mean, none of these men would have had, I mean, serious combat training.
[tense music.]
[John.]
We had three or four days, maybe, out on the shooting range.
We had nothing else.
Air Force guys did not have training like an infantryman in the Army or a Marine infantryman.
They weren't ever intended to fight.
[music becomes more tense.]
[enemy voices.]
[panting.]
[John.]
It was just a matter of when they're gonna get to us and kill us because they weren't taking any prisoners, that's for sure.
They was shooting everybody between the eyes.
Etch, what are you doin'? He found a place to hide under a rock outcropping by hisself.
So, I don't know why he stayed there rather than coming on down under there.
He just found a place to hide.
- [enemy voices.]
- [scrub rustles.]
We didn't have no plan.
[chuckles.]
We were just there.
I mean You know, it wasn't supposed to happen, so who's prepared? So you stay where you're at and hope for the best.
[slow footsteps.]
[Ronald.]
Chief Master Sergeant Etchberger basically needed to make the decision to save the lives of his troops, which meant him exposing himself to the enemy.
And again, remember, these guys were not expected to be engaged in hand-to-hand combat or personal combat.
[groans with effort.]
[gunfire ceases.]
[panting.]
Etch! Run! [groaning with effort.]
[gunfire continues.]
Grenade! [John.]
They was throwing hand grenades down at us and Etch'd pick 'em up and throw 'em back.
So, he did what he was doing.
They're gonna go off anyhow, it's gonna do the same amount of damage, so, maybe I can get it back up there [groans.]
I got shot in both legs and broke my right one.
It's gonna go off! Gish was fatally wounded.
Monk was dead.
Daniel was shot in the legs.
[groans.]
[silence.]
[woman laughs softly.]
[woman.]
You know, Steven asked if you're gonna be his real dad.
[Etch.]
I just want him to know that he'll be my son.
Not my stepson, my son.
I see it.
That's why I'm marrying you.
- Oh! - Mm-hmm.
- That's why? - Mm-hmm.
[gentle classical music.]
[Etch sighs.]
[explosion.]
[volley of gunfire.]
[groans.]
[relentless machine-gun fire.]
I think Sliz is gone! [groans.]
[volley of gunfire.]
[groans.]
- How're your legs? - [moans.]
[gasping.]
They're bad! They're bad! I'm sorry.
Hey! Listen to me.
[louder.]
Listen to me! There's only NVA up there right now.
Let's do one last bombing run, wipe them out, and take out the camp, alright? - They're gonna kill us, too! - Hey, listen to me.
At least we'll take out some of them with us.
Come on.
- Call position.
- [groans in pain.]
This is Camp Commando.
We're being overrun.
Need immediate air support.
Do you copy? Over.
Fuck! [groans.]
[machine-gun fire.]
Again! Hit it again! Do you copy? Over.
Camp Commando, bombers en route.
Send location.
Copy? Tell 'em to hit the top of the hill.
The top of the hill! Just stay off of us! The top of the hill.
We're the northern side the mountain.
- D'you copy? Over.
- Copy.
Find some cover.
Alright.
[plane rumbling.]
Okay.
Down! Down! Down! Down! [plane rumbles overhead.]
[explosion.]
- [groans.]
- [Etch.]
Sliz! - [cries in pain.]
- Sliz, are you alright? - I was standing there - Help is on the way, man.
Help is on the way.
Come on! [groans.]
[distant explosions.]
[dawn chorus.]
It was like the North Vietnamese thought everybody was gone on the ledge, and so they just sorta ceased their efforts to get down.
And so you had these three guys that were on the ledge until daylight.
There was a rescue force that had been put together, so it was gonna come in and evacuate the people that morning.
But in the meantime, there was this Air America pilot in a UH-1.
- Oh, boy.
- So you were a pilot with Air America huh? - I think so.
Yeah.
- Okay.
He was the master and I was his slave.
- You wanna say that louder? - Yeah! - I didn't hear you.
- No, we were a crew.
[Ken.]
Yeah.
Air America was a contract company owned by the Central Intelligence Agency.
[Ken.]
One of our missions there in Laos was to transport Laotian soldiers to various mountaintop sites, but this particular day, we heard a lot of chatter on the radio.
This is Camp Commando.
Two men injured.
Need immediate evac.
[Ken.]
So, I looked at Rusty and we didn't exchange any words, but we just knew we were gonna go in there and see if we could pick up these guys.
[groans in pain.]
Listen! [distant helicopter blades.]
[radio.]
Anyone copy? Repeat.
Does anyone on the mountain copy? We're on the northern slope.
Two men injured.
Need immediate evac.
[chopper thrumming.]
Hey! We're at your six o'clock.
Northern slope.
Turn around and look back.
[Ken.]
There was a guy on the radio.
His name was John Daniel.
I didn't know John.
John didn't know us, but he kinda directed us in.
Told the chopper, said, "We're on this side of the mountain.
" They said, "Yep.
We'll be right there.
" And they come right in and hovered over us and then he started getting us evacuated.
Let's get the hell outta here! [Ken.]
I said, "Look, I'm gonna try and position the rotor over the ledge of a cliff," so that I could get as much ground cushion and relieve the strain on the engine.
So, that's what I did, but I could not land.
[chopper thrumming.]
[rousing music.]
Stay there! Sit! [machine-gun fire.]
[Ken.]
Everything seems to be routine until you start receiving ground fire.
And then your adrenaline starts getting to you, and so you wanna get outta there.
[chopper thrumming overhead.]
[enemy fire ceases.]
[dramatic music.]
Go! I'm right behind you! Chief exposes himself to make sure that Daniel, who is wounded in the legs, gets hoisted up.
Come on, let's go.
You're next! Hey, Etch! We can both fit! I'll cover.
You go! Go, up! Go! We brought another guy up.
Well, by this time, the aircraft is leaning like that and I'm thinking, I'm running out of cyclic displacement.
Okay? Control.
At that time, I asked Rusty, I said, "How much longer do you think this is gonna go on?" [man shouting.]
Etch! Wait! - [Etch.]
Hey! - [man.]
Wait! Chill! [Etch.]
Get down here! All of a sudden, running down the trail comes Husband.
A group of the Americans had taken refuge and around some rocks, and at one point, the North Vietnamese sappers came in and shot these people, but Husband played dead.
Let's go! [pilot.]
Welcome aboard! Go! Daniel! Eyes open! [Rusty.]
Etchberger, he was the last man up, which shows good leadership.
It was his duty, in his mind, that "I've gotta do this.
I've gotta save my troops.
" And he did one hell of a job.
Papapapapap! You never forget this sound when a bullet's piercing metal.
[poignant music.]
When they got me awake, I said, "Where's Etch? I wanna talk to him.
I wanna tell him thank you.
" Said, "He's dead.
" I said, "No.
He can't be dead, he wasn't shot.
" And they told me what happened, that he caught one round through the bottom of the chopper and bled out.
Hit a large vein, [voice wavers.]
and he bled out before we got to the next landing site.
And I couldn't believe it.
I couldn't believe it.
I still hardly believe it to this day.
March of '68, we get a phone call at the house in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.
I answered the phone, and it was Mom and Cory and I sitting there.
The gentleman on the other end said, "Can I speak to Mrs.
 Etchberger, please?" She dropped the phone and fell on the floor and she was crying, and she said, you know, "Boys, your father's been killed.
" [narrator.]
Etchberger had bled out mid-air, surrounded by the soldiers he'd saved.
He died putting others first, which was also the way he'd lived.
[man.]
When they got married, I was 11 years old.
He raised me from that point on and treated me as his own.
[narrator.]
At the time Lima Site 85 fell, Etchberger's stepson Steve was all grown up, married and living in California, awaiting the birth of his first child.
[Steve.]
We went into a hospital for Traci's birth at midnight or so the night before, and Traci was born at 7:14 in the morning.
[woman.]
They called my grandmother to let her know that I was born and she was so excited, and then a couple hours later, my dad got the phone call that my grandfather had been killed.
Traci was born the day he died.
It had to have been really hard for everybody, but my grandmother said that I was the angel that Dick sent for her, so that we passed, and I was her angel, and that's how she always put it.
For a family, one life lost even as another was coming into the world, a baby, who would inherit a proud but already complicated legacy because even as Etchberger's passing was reported to the wider world, its true circumstances were being obscured.
[Cory.]
The local newspaper, on March 22nd of 1968, reportsthat he's been killed in a helicopter accident.
That's what our mother tells us.
It was the birth of a fiction that would live for decades, echoed even at the highest levels inside the Pentagon where the family was welcomed.
It was a ceremony so secret that it was never even put on my dad's records.
[narrator.]
Chief Master Sergeant Richard Etchberger had been nominated for the Medal of Honor, but because his mission had been secret, such a public form of recognition was considered impossible.
[Rich.]
They presented the Air Force Cross, the second-highest award you can receive, and Mom, when she came home, took that medal and she put it in the back of her closet.
I never saw that again while she was alive.
[Traci.]
Definitely I did not know anything about his story at all.
My grandmother never said anything to me.
[Rich.]
She never talked about Dad.
She never shared any information with us about where he was or what he had done.
[narrator.]
A covert operation claiming victims long after it was over, including a widow put in an impossible position, forced to keep her husband's heroism from the children suffering so acutely in his absence.
[Rich.]
You know, as cool a role model as he was up 'til ten years old, I would love to have had a relationship, like now, even.
So I I feel like I was robbed of that.
So, I was angry as a young kid.
You know, I remember thinking about this and just being, "Why did we have this this damn war?" [narrator.]
His brother Steve, though, had been all set to follow in his father's footsteps.
Two weeks after I joined the Air Force, I got my draft notice.
[Rich.]
He got his orders, packed his stuff, got on the plane.
The plane was on the flight line, and someone must have checked the passenger list.
The plane turned around, stopped at the gate, Steve got off, the plane left.
I never went over and I didn't know why.
[narrator.]
The truth would take decades to reveal itself.
It wouldn't happen until after their mother had passed away, taking the secret of their father's mission with her.
I wish we woulda sat and had that talk of what they had said and what her thoughts were on it, before she passed away.
And you know what? I didn't ask.
I wish I had.
But I I never asked my mom.
[narrator.]
A year after Catherine Etchberger's death, her sons would finally learn about their father's heroism.
The truth revealed in an astonishing encounter with the author of a book about Lima Site 85.
Tim Castle gets a hold of Rich, says, "Would you like to see an advanced manuscript of my book coming up, and would you like to know about really what happened to your dad?" And so there's lots of secrecy here that nobody really knew about.
And so, Rich spends a couple hours sitting at his dining room table.
It might sound a little corny, but when I say I went through a box of tissues, I'm serious.
There was a lot of emotions that came out that night when I was listening to Tim talk about my dad.
Rich finally calls me and says, "It's not what we thought.
" Mom hid that Air Force Cross, not because she didn't want the pain for the kids to see it, she hid that Air Force Cross so people didn't ask questions and didn't put her in a difficult situation.
So that is really the point at which we understand what really happened.
To find out later on that he actually it wasn't a random event.
He actually died saving his guys.
That makes you think about a lotta things.
[Steve.]
He thought he was doing right for this country.
That was his goal, to try to stop this war.
[narrator.]
A fuller picture was emerging, and not just because of the book.
We have a letter that he wrote to his friend, Ed Perrigo, and Ed shared this letter with us.
[narrator.]
"It is the most challenging job I'll ever have in my life.
I love it.
Travel all the time.
Hate to be away from home, but believe in the job.
And as I said, just love it.
" So that's what all those guys up there thought at that mountain.
They weren't worried about the political unrest and the political ramifications of what was gonna happen.
They were asked, "Will you volunteer for a mission to save American lives and bring an early end to the Vietnam War?" And they said, "Yes.
" And that's why those guys stay on that mountain, even though they know the North Vietnamese are coming.
Because they think it's an important enough mission to stay here one more night.
[narrator.]
And as for Etchberger's son, Steve, who hadn't been allowed to spend even one night in the conflict, the truth about that was about to be revealed, too.
[Steve.]
After all this is said and done, one of the people writing the book had my records pulled and found that as long as he was on this mission, I was not to go over there.
[Traci.]
It was because of the nature of his mission that my grandfather was able to get that put in my dad's file in order to stay here, and I'm very grateful for that because just that one thing, my life would have been so different.
[narrator.]
Etchberger, who saved his men while on a secret mission, had secretly saved his son as well.
But for a family reeling from so many revelations, there was yet one more surprise in store.
The phone rings and I answer the phone, and the woman said, "This is Katie Johnson from President Obama's office.
Would you please hold for a call?" [chuckles.]
"Yeah, of course.
Yes.
" He said, "Hey, the President called.
" And I was like, "Wow!" I just broke down.
[narrator.]
With the truth now out about Etchberger's actions at Lima Site 85, it was recommended that his Air Force Cross be upgraded to the Medal of Honor.
Going to the White House was like riding a motorcycle through an art gallery.
That is, you sort of see things going by, but you never really get much detail.
You're walking around the White House and looking at the pictures and the photographs, and trying to take it all in.
And the President and Mrs.
Obama are making small talk with everybody.
It's really a neat situation.
They were super-friendly people.
I knew that I was going to accept the medal, so I was very, very nervous.
At the end of the time we spent in the Oval Office with the President and his wife, the President kinda pulled me aside and put his hand on my shoulder and he said, "Rich, let's try not to drop that thing up front.
" And he kinda smiled at me and I kinda, at that point, I just kinda went, "I can do this.
" Good afternoon.
And on behalf of Michelle and myself, welcome to the White House.
Of all the military decorations that our nation can bestow, the highest is the Medal of Honor.
For risking one's life in action, for serving above and beyond the call of duty.
Today, we present the Medal of Honor to an American who displayed such gallantry, more than four decades ago, Chief Master Sergeant Richard L.
Etchberger.
Sadly, Dick's wife Catherine did not live to see this moment.
But today, Steve and Richard and Cory, today, your nation finally acknowledges and fully honors your father's bravery.
Because, even though it has been 42 years, it's never too late to do the right thing.
So please join me in welcoming Steve, Richard, and Cory [Rich.]
The President called Cory and Steve and I up onto the stage and shook hands, said a few words to each one of us, and everybody else in the room stood up and started clapping, and that's when I thought, I'm gonna lose it, at that point because it was just you could feel the love and the respect and how everybody there was there for a reason, and that reason was our dad's sacrifice.
[applause.]
[Cory.]
It wasn't about us, it was about the fact we were finally gonna be able to, um [clicks tongue.]
make it right for him.
Um Just such a great honor to make sure that Dad got this.
[narrator.]
An act of heroism by one man spurring a search for meaning and purpose in others.
Look at those eyes! He was, like, so serious.
[Traci.]
A lotta people would've thought that would have been the end of our story, and instead it was the beginning.
[speaker.]
Let's give a warm welcome to the Etchberger Foundation.
[narrator.]
Today, through the Etchberger Foundation, the family works with schools to encourage young people to pursue service and leadership with the message that any one person can affect many.
[drill sergeant issues command.]
Etchberger's legacy also endures at the Air Force's school for non-commissioned officers.
[speaker.]
The recipient of the Chief Etchberger Team Award for Class 17 Delta is Flight 27.
[thunderous applause, cheering.]
[narrator.]
The Etchberger Award honors teamwork.
The recipients proving dedication not just to academics and fitness, but to community involvement.
It's the only team award given by the Air Force.
I appreciate everybody's service to our country, and I know Dad would be proud of your service, without a doubt.
One of those whom Etchberger saved is also hoping, in his own way, to carry a hero's legacy forward.
Without him, none of us would be alive today.
So, 11 March, 1968, is my birthday, along with I have a real birthday, but that is the first day of the rest of my life.
There is something that God has got for me to do still on this green Earth, or I would not be here today.
I don't know exactly what it is but there's something that I've still gotta do before it's my time.
It's the only reason that I think that I'm here.
From a secret mission in one of America's darkest conflicts, one man's brave act finally brought into the light, his story now able to teach, inspire and empower the next generation.
[stirring orchestral music.]
- Mr.
Potter, your turn to talk.
- You say there are no combat forces in Laos.
How do you regard the Airmen who bombed the Ho Chi Minh Trail from bases in Thailand and Vietnam? Would you regard those as combat forces? When we consider the situation in Laos, I think President Kennedy, in his first major television speech, which we all remember, in 1962, put it very well.
He pointed out that Laos was potentially the key to what would happen in Thailand as well as in Vietnam and the balance of Southeast Asia.
Now, Laos relates very much to Vietnam because the Ho Chi Minh Trail runs through Laos.
It is necessary, under those circumstances, that the United States take cognizance of that, and we do have aerial reconnaissance, uh, we do have perhaps some other activities.
I won't discuss those other activities at this time.
What's really ironic about this whole thing, I flew almost 1,000 hours in the Army in Vietnam before I got out.
And in that almost 1,000 hours, I never took a hit.
Okay? When I went with Air America, the first year I was there, I brought aircraft back to the main operating base that looked like a piece of Swiss cheese.
I mean, the war up there was intense - and Rusty will verify that.
- Yeah.
We've had a lot of guys that we lost over there because of enemy ground fire.
I've always claimed that I had 187 hits in the nine years or whatever it was I was over there.
And usually it was in groups of five.
Occasionally, there would be one, but, like I say, they used to call me "Magnet Ass" for some reason.
- [clears throat.]
You know? - [Ken laughs.]
I had a reputation for being shot at a lot.
Yeah, if I'd known that, I'd never have picked you as a crew chief.
[laughs.]
This photo's got a mind of its own.
Might want to roll up by itself.
But this is the so-called secret base of Long Tieng, manned by the CIA, the Central Intelligence Agency.
This is also referred to as Lima Site 20 Alternate.
This runway that you see right here is oriented east and west.
This is the area where we parked our Air America choppers right in here.
But we used to have an Air America hostel right here, where we would have dinner.
But we had positions, Lao soldier positions, all along the ridge lines here, okay.
And what they would do, they would provide perimeter defense.
What we did, we'd take off to the north, we'd fly for about 15-20 minutes to a place called Muang Soui, and we'd kinda turn the corner and fly up to the northeast to Lima Site 85.
So it was about a 40-, 45-minute ride in the Huey, what I was flying.
Very I mean there was one time where we exceeded the traffic flow of O'Hare.
[laughs.]
There was that much activity there during the height of the war.
When you live on a mountain that closely with each other, you know, in those close quarters, you know, you become not just friends, but I think I've never been there.
I assume you become brothers.
I mean, from what I hear from everybody who's ever served under those close combat conditions, you're not there to kill people, you're there to because you love your nation, because you love each other.
I talked to his son, Cory, when we met at the Medal of Honor ceremony in Washington, in 2010, I think it was.
And we didn't exchange many words at all.
There was one thing that I wanted to get to I wanted to relay to Cory, was that I was sorry that he had to, uh die on my watch, so to speak.
And Cory told me, he said, "Ken, forget it.
 It's over.
" He said, "Get rid of that memory.
" So, I it's not something that I harbored, you know, for all these years, but I just wanted to unload and let Cory know that I'm sorry.
If I had maneuvered the helicopter a little bit to the left or a little bit to the right, or forward or back he may have been with us today, but fate happens.
So, that's about the only words that I've had with Cory, really.
The one thing about Rusty Irons that I wanna tell you about is I met him, I'm gonna say it may have been about, um 2000 after the Medal of Honor ceremony.
He was at the Medal of Honor ceremony, and I met him again two years later, I think.
We didn't get a whole lotta chance to talk to Rusty at the ceremony, but I had some private time with him later, um, and he was really taken aback by what I said to him.
I said, "Thanks for saving Dad.
" Because he did.
You know, he didn't know he was gonna die.
I've always tried to live up to the the example that he set.
Um, certainly, when you find out, uh what happened later on, that makes your looks in the mirror a little different [laughs.]
To try to You know, you wonder "Could I measure up that kind of uh, to what he did?" And you always hope for that, but you don't know until you're tested.
And I think that I think that people are tested all the time in their lives.
Uh And choosing to do the right thing, it doesn't always have to be in front of gunfire and those kinds of things.
I wrote a letter to Colonel Wade Johnson at the Barnes Center here at Maxwell-Gunter, who owned the Senior NCO Academy.
And I proposed that we establish an award in Chief Etchberger's honor.
First of all, the mission was very near and dear to my heart, and I wanted his memory to be preserved, and also to perpetuate his legacy.
It's interesting when we talk about Airmen and about their leadership qualities, and what they do for the Air Force, and a little bit in the graduation, we heard Chief Mills talk about one stripe is for the Airman and one stripe is for the family.
If it were not for the families and the people that support the Airmen, there's no way this Air Force would be as great as it is.
And so to have the Etchberger boys essentially belong to the Air Force, that's a great honor.
It is just one of those outstanding, brilliant things about the Etchbergers, where they really are continuing those characteristics their dad exhibited at Lima Site 85.
- You bet.
- Congratulations.
You know, we have the Airman's Creed and we talk about a tradition of honor, and a legacy of valor, that's what this is.
To be able to look back at heroes like Chief Etchberger and the sacrifices that he made, helps reinforce that in our lives.
- [yelps and cheers.]
- [thunderous applause.]
For the Etchberger family, this is a day more than 40 years in the making.
Cory was just nine years old, but he can still remember that winter in 1968 when he, his brothers, and his mom, were escorted to the Pentagon.
The war in Vietnam was still raging.
Dick Etchberger had given his life earlier that year.
Now, his family was being welcomed by the Air Force Chief of Staff.
In a small, private ceremony, Dick was recognized with the highest honor that the Air Force can give, the Air Force Cross.
These three sons were told that their dad was a hero, that he had died while saving his fellow Airmen.
But they weren't told much else.
Their father's work was classified, and for years, that's all they really knew.
Then, nearly two decades later, the phone rang.
It was the Air Force, and their father's mission was finally being declassified.
And that's when they learned the truth, that their father had given his life not in Vietnam, but in neighboring Laos.
That's when they began to learn the true measure of their father's heroism.
Dick Etchberger was a radar technician and he had been handpicked for a secret assignment.
With a small team of men, he served at the summit of one of the tallest mountains in Laos, more than a mile high, literally above the clouds.
They manned a tiny radar station, guiding American pilots in the air campaign against North Vietnam.
Dick and his crew believed that they could help turn the tide of the war, perhaps even end it.
And that's why North Vietnamese forces were determined to shut it down.
They sent their planes to strafe the Americans as they worked.
They moved in their troops and eventually, Dick and his team could look through their binoculars and see that their mountain was surrounded by thousands of North Vietnamese troops.
Dick and his crew, at that point, had a decision to make.
Ask to be evacuated or continue the mission for another day.
They believed that no one could possibly scale the mountain's steep cliffs and they believed in their work.
So they stayed.
They continued their mission.
There were 19 Americans on the mountain that evening.
When their shift was over, Dick and his four men moved down to a small, rocky ledge on a safer side of the mountain.
And then, during the night, the enemy attacked.
Somehow, fighters scaled the cliffs and overran the summit.
Down the side of the mountain, Dick and his men were now trapped on that ledge.
The enemy lobbed down grenade after grenade, hour after hour.
Dick and his men would grab those grenades and throw them back or kick them into the valley below.
But the grenades kept coming.
One Airman was killed, and then another.
A third Airman was wounded, then another.
Eventually, Dick was the only man standing.
As a technician, he had no formal combat training.
In fact, he had only recently been issued a rifle.
But Dick Etchberger was the very definition of an NCO, a leader determined to take care of his men.
When the enemy started moving down the rocks, Dick fought them off.
When it looked like the ledge would be overrun, he called for airstrikes within yards of his own position, shaking the mountain and clearing the way for a rescue.
And in the morning light, an American helicopter came into view.
Richard Etchberger lived the Airman's Creed, to never leave an Airman behind, to never falter, to never fail.
So, as the helicopter hovered above and lowered its sling, Dick loaded his wounded men, one by one, each time exposing himself to enemy fire.
And when another Airman suddenly rushed forward after eluding the enemy all night, Dick loaded him, too.
And finally, himself.
They had made it off the mountain.
And that's when it happened.
The helicopter began to peel away, a burst of gunfire erupted below, Dick was wounded, and by the time they landed at the nearest base, he was gone.
Of those 19 men on the mountain that night, only seven made it out alive.
Three of them owed their lives to the actions of Dick Etchberger.
Today, we're honored to be joined by one of them, Mr.
John Daniel.
But today also marks another chapter in a larger story of our nation finally honoring that generation of Vietnam veterans, who served with dedication and courage, but all too often, were shunned when they came home, which was a disgrace that must never happen again.
A few years ago, an Airman who never even knew Dick Etchberger read about his heroism and felt he deserved something more.
So he wrote his congressman, who made it his mission to get this done.
Today, we thank that Airman, retired Master Sergeant Robert Dilley, and that Congressman, Earl Pomeroy, who along with Congressman Holden made this day possible.
Sadly, Dick's wife Catherine did not live to see this moment.
But today, Steve and Richard and Cory, today, your nation finally acknowledges, and fully honors your father's bravery.
Because even though it has been 42 years, it's never too late to do the right thing.
And it's never too late to pay tribute to our Vietnam veterans and their families.
In recent years, Dick's story has become known and Air Force bases have honored him with streets and buildings in his name.
And at the base where he trained so long ago in Barksdale Barksdale in Louisiana, there's a granite monument with an empty space next to his name, and that space can finally be etched with the words "Medal of Honor.
" But the greatest memorial of all to Dick Etchberger is the spirit that we feel here today, the love that inspired him to serve, love for his country, and love for his family.
The most eloquent expression of that devotion are the words that he wrote himself to a friend back home just months before he gave his life to our nation.
"I hate to be away from home," he wrote, from that small base above the clouds, "but I believe in the job.
" He said, "It is the most challenging job I'll ever have in my life.
" And then he added, "I love it.
" Our nation endures because there are patriots like Chief Master Sergeant Richard Etchberger, and our troops who are serving as we speak, who love this nation and defend it.
Their legacy lives on because their families and fellow citizens preserve it.
And as Americans, we remain worthy of their example only so long as we honor it, not merely with the medals that we present, but by remaining true to the values and freedoms for which they fight.
So please join me in welcoming Steve, Richard, and Cory for the reading of the citation.
[speaker.]
The President of the United States of America, authorized by act of Congress, March 3rd, 1863, has awarded, in the name of the Congress, the Medal of Honor to Chief Master Sergeant Richard L.
Etchberger, United States Air Force, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity, at the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty.
Chief Master Sergeant Richard L.
Etchberger distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism, on March 11th, 1968, in the country of Laos, while assigned to Ground Radar Superintendent, Detachment 1, 1043rd Radar Evacuation Squadron.
On that day, Chief Etchberger and his team of technicians were manning a top-secret defensive position at Lima Site 85, when the base was overrun by an enemy ground force.
Receiving sustained and withering heavy-artillery attacks directly upon his unit's position, Chief Etchberger's entire crew lay dead or severely wounded.
Despite having received little or no combat training, Chief Etchberger single-handedly held off the enemy with an M-16, while simultaneously directing air strikes into the area and calling for air rescue.
Because of his fierce defense, and heroic and selfless actions, he was able to deny the enemy access to his position and save the lives of his remaining crew.
With the arrival of the rescue aircraft, Chief Etchberger, without hesitation, repeatedly and deliberately risked his own life, exposing himself to heavy enemy fire, in order to place three surviving, wounded comrades into rescue slings hanging from the hovering helicopter, waiting to airlift them to safety.
With his remaining crew safely aboard, Chief Etchberger finally climbed into the evacuation sling himself, only to be fatally wounded by enemy ground fire as he was being raised into the aircraft.
Chief Etchberger's bravery and determination in the face of persistent enemy fire and overwhelming odds, are in keeping with the highest standards of performance and traditions of military service.
Chief Etchberger's gallantry, self-sacrifice, and profound concern for his fellow men, at risk of his life, above and beyond the call of duty, reflect the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.
[applause.]