I hope these stories get out before another 50 years goes by..
These folks deserve it...
@EdinVA They are out and there is no putting them back in the box.
It WAS awkward at the time,though. Tough to get any valor awards higher than a Bronze Star with a V device because the citation had to list the area the action took place in. Since we rarely operated in VN except for training missions like Recon Team Leader's School,if you were put in for a Silver Star it would be denied by the people back in the DA because they would have no record of US troops operating there.
LTC Robert Howard,for example,was put in for a Medal of Honor on THREE separate occasions in less than a year,and turned down twice by DA because they had no record of any combat action in that grid area on that day.
He was acting as the Recon Company 1st Sgt when I first met him,and he was an E-6. The CO put him in that position to keep him out of the field so he wouldn't get killed before he finally got the MoH he deserved. When he did get it,he also got a battlefield promotion to 1st Lt.
Bob was one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet anywhere,and as long as he thought
you were doing your duty to the best of your ability,you called him "Bob". If he didn't think you were doing your duty,you hid from him until the airplane arrived to take you back to Nha Trang for re-assignment. Seriously.
There are a BUNCH of SOG books out there now,many actually written by the SOG soldiers themselves.
One of the best,IMHO,was written by Franklin D.Miller,another FOB-2 MoH awardee. Believe it or not,he served 5 years running SOG recon missions into Laos and Cambodia before he got shot up so badly they had to assign him office or training jobs.
The title of his book is "Reflections of a Warrior",and I can't recommend it too highly.
And Miller and Bob wern't the only two MoH awardees at FOB-2. I once stood in formation there,and there were 9 current or future MoH awardees standing in that Recon Company formation out of the 30 men assigned to recon company.
Ahhhh,but those were wild and heady days! Imagine for a moment being in the army,and not having ANYBODY telling you what to do or how to do it,other than your team leader.
Imagine for a moment being on a recon team with a Sgt E-5 being the team leader,and a Captain 0-3 being the radio operator. And make no mistake about it,the buck sgt WAS the team leader,and the Captain was well aware of it and was happy to be the radio op.
Or in one case,a recon team with a SSG E-6 as the team leader,and the camp commander,a LTC 0-5
carrying his radio for him. Yeah,it really happened. HOW it happened is the LTC was our camp commander and even had a Silver Star from Korea,but he was a tanker in Korea,so he didn't have a Combat Infantryman Badge,and desperatly wanted one. So Joe offered to take him out with his team,which pretty much meant there was going to be combat. Joe just LOVED firefights.
One of the recon team members "side jobs" was to serve as a radio relay operator from a mountain top (call sign Leghorn) in Laos,and relay sitreps and other messages back to the FOB at Kontum. It just so happened that I was on radio duty at Leghorn,and was receiving the noon sitrep from Joe,via the LTC on the radio. Suddenly,I heard a brief burst of AK fire,and the radio went dead.
I later found out that what happened was that some NVA counter-recon tracking unit had been following Joe's team,and caught up when they stopped for the noon mean. When they opened fire,one of the shots severed the microphone cord.
Joe's team,one of the most experienced in the business,managed to open fire and suppress the incoming fire long enough for them to haul ass. They got out later because every team,and usually every American on a team had an US Air Force emergency radio we stole from the Air Force,and when you pulled out the antenna on one of those babies,every aircraft in range thinks a USAF plane has been shot down,and here they come to the rescue at maximum speed.
So,Joe gave them a brief rundown on what happened and why they couldn't continue the mission,and the helicopters were sent out to join half the US Air Force circling the team and laying down suppressive cannon fire and bombs,and the team was pulled.
There can be NO doubt our good Colonel earned his CIB,either.
BUT.....,let's just say there were some people at the base camp and little higher more than a little worried before they got out clean.
Both Bob and Miller are dead now. Bob died several years ago from infected blood he recieved in blood transfusions in VN,and Bob died of cancer.
Bob Howard was one of the finest men AND finest soliders that ever lived. AFAIAC,every school child should know who he was and some of the things he did.
And this takes NOTHING away from Miller or any of the other MoH winners. I am positive they would say the same thing about Bob if they were still around to say it.
