pagesofhistory Award for Valor
A MOAA member and former helicopter commander receives the Medal of Honor for risking his life several times to save fellow servicemembers during the Vietnam War.
L
t. Col. Charles Kettles, USA (Ret), risked his life multiple times to save dozens of soldiers trapped during
an ambush by North Vietnamese forces in May 1967. For his valor, Kettles was awarded the Medal of Honor during a White House ceremony July 18. As a UH-1D helicopter pilot, then-Major
Kettles volunteered to lead six helicopters carrying reinforcements to rescue members of the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, pinned down in the Song Tra Cau riverbed at Duc Pho. Despite heavy enemy fire at the landing zone, Kettles refused to leave until reinforcements and supplies were offloaded and the wounded loaded to capacity. Once the wounded had been offloaded
at the staging area, Kettles returned with additional reinforcements, fully aware the enemy would be waiting. Intense mortar and automatic weapons fire wounded his gunner and damaged his helicopter, but Kettles managed to return to base. Later that day, he again volunteered to lead a flight of six evacuation helicopters (includ- ing five from the 161st Aviation Company) to extract the remaining 40 troops, plus four members of his unit who had been stranded when their helicopter was destroyed. The extraction team left the battlefield
believing all personnel had been safely loaded, only to learn while airborne that eight soldiers had been unable to reach the evacuation spot due to blistering enemy fire. With complete disregard for his own safety, Kettles returned to the landing zone
PHOTO: COURTESY WIKICOMMONS
to rescue the remaining personnel, taking concentrated enemy fire the entire time. Once the soldiers were aboard, Kettles flew his badly damaged helicopter to safety.
A
Tuskegee Plane on Display PT-13 aircraft used to train Tuskegee Airmen
will be among the thou- sands of artifacts on display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., when it officially opens Sept. 24. Air Force Capt. Matt Quy and his wife, Tina, donated the plane. The couple refurbished the vin- tage crop duster and, out of curiosity, sent the serial number to an Air Force historian. The couple were stunned to learn the plane had been used to train the military’s first African-American avia- tors — the Tuskegee Airmen. Before turning the plane over to the museum, the Quys offered one last ride to the remaining members of the fabled group. “It was just great to sit in the back seat and look at this real Tuskegee air- man in a real Tuskegee plane. [It was] just magical,” Matt Quy told 60 Minutes.
MO
— Don Vaughan, a North Carolina-based free- lance writer, authors this monthly column.
SEPTEMBER 2016 MILITARY OFFICER 1 07
History Lesson On Sept. 3, 1783, John Adams, John Jay, and Benjamin Franklin signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the Revolutionary War after eight long years.
Then-Army Maj. Charles Kettles stands in front of a UH-1H helicopter in 1969. Kettles was awarded the Medal of Honor July 18 for his actions during the Vietnam War.
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