President presents posthumous Medal of Honor to hero's sons

21 Sep 2010 | Karen Parrish

President Barack Obama presented the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry to the family of an Air Force chief master sergeant killed in action 42 years ago in Laos during a ceremony Sept. 21. 

"Today, we present the Medal of Honor to an American who displayed such gallantry more than four decades ago: Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. Etchberger," the president said at the White House ceremony. "This medal reflects the gratitude of an entire nation."

Chief Etchberger's brother, Robert, and sons, Cory Etchberger, Richard Etchberger and Steve Wilson, attended the ceremony.

The president detailed Chief Etchberger's actions as he fought through the night of March 11, 1968, holding off the enemy, calling in air strikes and loading three fellow servicemembers into an evacuation helicopter before he was shot by enemy forces who overran his worksite, a secret radar installation manned by Air Force technicians disguised as civilians.

Lima Site 85, set above the clouds on a steep mountaintop in nominally neutral Laos housed a radio transmitter, later upgraded to a radar installation, dedicated to directing U.S. air-to-ground bombing in North Vietnam from 1966 to 1968. The battle at Lima Site 85 resulted in the largest Air Force ground combat loss of the Vietnam War.

"Of those 19 men on the mountain that night, only seven made it out alive," President Obama said. "Three of them owed their lives to the actions of Dick Etchberger."

During a "small, private" Pentagon ceremony in the winter of 1968, Chief Etchberger's wife, Catherine, and sons were presented with an Air Force Cross, President Obama said, but public awareness of Chief Etchberger's actions didn't occur until Air Force officials declassified his mission in 1986.

"That's when they learned the truth: that their father had given his life, not in Vietnam, but in neighboring Laos," the president said. "That's when they began to learn the true measure of their father's heroism."

President Obama said when their father's mission was declassified, Chief Etchberger's sons learned that their mother had known the whole story all along, but had been sworn to secrecy.

"She kept that promise, to her husband and her country, all those years, not even telling her own sons," the president said. "So today is also a tribute to Catherine Etchberger, and a reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices that our military spouses make on behalf of our nation.

"Sadly, Dick's wife, Catherine, did not live to see this moment. But Steve, Richard and Cory, today your nation finally acknowledges, and fully honors, your father's bravery," President Obama continued, "because even though it's 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."

President Obama then presented the cased award to Chief Etchberger's sons. Chief Etchberger became only the 14th Airman to receive the Medal of Honor for actions during the Vietnam War and only the third enlisted Airman so honored.

Attendees also included First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright, Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley, other leaders of the armed forces, members of Congress, previous Medal of Honor recipients and friends of the Etchberger family to honor the man his son Cory has described as "an ordinary man who found himself in an extraordinary circumstance."