Fort Pierce man to be awarded Distinguished Flying Cross

[JJ_BPK]

This is good...

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/jun/...distinguished/

Fort Pierce man to be awarded Distinguished Flying Cross, By Joe Crankshaw,
Posted June 9, 2011 at 7:15 p.m., updated June 9, 2011 at 11:44 p.m.

FORT PIERCE — Forty-three years after a desperate battle in the jungles of Laos, three survivors of that fight gathered at the National Navy UDT/SEAL Museum Thursday morning to celebrate their perseverance and courage.

"Without that man," said retired Army Maj. Richard Chapman, 65, of Fort Pierce pointing at former medic and retired Army Sgt. Richard Crawford, 69, of Lakeland, "I would not be here. He saved my life."

Although Chapman credits Crawford for heroism, it's Chapman, who co-piloted a helicopter for the 101st Airborne Division in that battle during the Vietnam War, who will receive a Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions later this year.

The award is for "heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight," according to the Distinguished Flying Cross Society website.

Crawford and fellow Army Sgt. John Smith, 69, of Hawthorne, were at the museum to tell Chapman the long-delayed medal, and others, would be awarded to him later this year.

Crawford said the medals were not awarded then because of the secret nature of the covert mission by the Green Beret unit into Laos in 1968.

The battle was fought Sept. 28, 1968, in the jungle of Laos west of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

A reconnaissance patrol of the 5th Special Forces Operation Group — three Americans and four Montagnard tribesmen — had been monitoring North Vietnamese tank movements, gathering intelligence and laying out booby-trapped ammunition for the Communist forces to find.

After three days, their food supplies had run out and they were supposed to be extricated by helicopter. Bad weather thwarted the effort, but alerted Communists to the approximate position of the little unit. The Americans, including Smith and the four tribesmen, were playing hide-and-seek with a 400-man North Vietnamese Army unit.

"President Lyndon Johnson had told all Americans that there were no American forces in Laos or Cambodia," said Smith. "Yet we were there, but we couldn't be there, so they had to get us out."

Crawford, an Army medic at the time and the man who brought the trio together at the museum Thursday, said a "Prairie Fire Emergency" was declared. The code words required everyone in Southeast Asia to take part in the effort to extract the Green Beret team from the jungle.

A helicopter gunship on which Chapman was copilot, and two troop carriers known as "slicks" because they were lightly armored, were sent to pull out the patrol which was in a hot bed of enemy units.

The first rescue helicopter went in and was hit by heavy fire. It returned and picked up the patrol, but was damaged and crashed not far away near an enemy camp. Soldiers swarmed out toward the downed craft.

"All the people on board had survived," said Chapman. His gunship then flew into the heavy fire and placed itself between the oncoming enemy and the survivors. It laid down such heavy fire that not one of the friendly forces on the ground was even scratched, as the survivors were picked up by the second rescue helicopter and flown to safety.

The gunship was not so lucky.

A 37 mm shell hit under Chapman's seat. He said he was saved by the armor plate beneath it. Shell fragments were embedded in his right boot and he was slightly wounded.

His helicopter crashed in a bamboo thicket. The back-up helicopter with Crawford in it swooped to the rescue. Hovering over the wrecked gunship, Crawford rigged up the extraction device — four ropes fastened to a 2-by-4 timber locked to the floor of the helicopter. The ropes were then lowered into the bamboo thicket so the survivors could lash themselves to the helicopter.

Chapman was having difficulty with his rope. Crawford stepped onto the helicopter's skid to shout instructions. He was hit by enemy fire and fell 20 feet to the ground. Picking himself up, he got Chapman secured, then helped another wounded crewman into the ropes, All five were pulled out through the jungle.

"You just dangle at the end of the rope. No winches to pull you up," said Chapman.

Thursday, Crawford and Smith presented Chapman with a T-shirt of the helicopter veterans group, which they wryly observed was made in Vietnam.

They also told him that Sen. Bill Nelson and Crawford have collected all but one piece of information needed to have the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart and other medals awarded to Chapman.

Crawford said everything should be done by fall, and the long, hard effort for the recognition was worth it.

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[Barbarian]

Great story. That's an award that's long overdue. Congrats, Sgt. Crawford.

[rdret1]

It is great to see these soldiers getting the recognition they deserve after so many years.

[Sohei]

That's a great story and a well-deserved honor. I'm glad they stuck with it this long and finally recognized him for his valor.