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Introduction

Undaunted Valor: Medal of Honor is a follow-on to Undaunted Valor: An Assault Helicopter Unit in Vietna the exploits of Company A, 227th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, Medal of Honor tracks the coh the days after the Cambodian Incursion and the company’s ion of Vietnam

I have attempted to present the events as factually as I can based on information provided by those that were there at the tiave all in the hope that, in some small way, I have honored those individuals Names of other individuals have been used with their permission Other names are fictitious as the individuals were unknown or requested that I not use their name Some names may appear that are similar to individuals at that time, that I was not aware of and in those cases it is entirely coincidental

In the early years in Vietnam, a pilot with the 227th AHB was the first Army aviator to receive the Medal of Honor In the period depicted in this book, one member of the company posthumously received the Medal of Honor1 Another individual working with the co the company in an action also received the Medal of Honor Two Medals of Honor in such close proximity of time, distance and events is a clear indicator of the intensity of this conflict at that time and location Another uished Service Cross posthumously for his actions as well Their stories need to be told some where besides the archives of the US Army Historical Center This is my small attempt to tell their stories

South East Asia, 1969

Chapter 1

August 1970, Lai Khe

The southwest , with late-afternoon showers that seee waited in his aircraft for it to let up after landing but finally said the hell with it and walked back to his hooch By the time he arrived at his hooch, there was not a stitch of dry clothing on him

“Anyone seen Cory?” Mike asked, co wet First Lieutenant Dan Cory had been in the unit for the past eighteentime He had previously been a warrant officer and had received a direct coht leader and the unit instructor pilot

Mike had been flying all day in the Song Be region, one hundredsince the Cambodian Incursion had ended last rouped and weren’t as active in the area as they had been before May 1, 1970, when the 1st Air Cavalry Division along with the 25th Infantry Division and 1st ARVN Airborne Division had made the incursion into sanctuaries in Caon That incursion had destroyed numerous supply dumps, hospitals, transportation hubs and command centers that supported NVA forces in the III Corps area of South Vietnaher headquarters was that it would take the NVA years to recover before they could launch another ive the South Vietnamese Arround forces from South Vietnam

Mike’s aviation company was Company A, 227th Assault Helicopter Battalion, part of the 1st Air Cavalry Division The unit had been located at Lai Khe for al moved down from the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, of Vietnam, where it had been since early 1968 Prior to that the unit had been in the central highlands since arriving in Vietnaly referred to by everyone as the Huey, or Slicks, were the workhorse of the Vietna at just over one hundreda combat load of six to seven fully equipped infantry soldiers, or grunts as they were called The aircraft could fly for two hours with a twenty-, it could fly in bad weather conditions as well, but seldom did the weather instruments work properly

“Yeah, I saw him, just before he went ho down the hall in their hooch Bill was now flying an extension past his required one year in Vietnam, as was Mike

“What’d you erator and retrieved a cold soda Mike seldoinally from Sacramento, California, Mike had been a fireman when he’d joined the Army He was in his mid-twenties, a bit older than most pilots, and he looked it You could always tell a pilot was a bit older by his well-developed mustache Most pilots sported peach fuzz uys Fellow pilots would joke that Mike looked like a Hollywood actor, Richard Boone, the TV cowboy Paladin froree with that assessment

Bill continued, “I guess the family of the CG’s pilot requested that Cory escort the body home, and they sent him home today Hell, the clerk came in at oh nine hundred and told hi Binh and report to Division Rear I think he left his shoulder holster on your bed and his Ka-Bar knife on Lou’s bed His refrigerator he donated to Grampa” General Casey, the division commander or CG, had been killed th

e week before in a helicopter crash while en route to Cam Ranh Bay to visit troops in the hospital His pilot, First Lieutenant William Michel, had been very close to Cory, and the fa their son’s body home

Grampa, as everyone called him, was WO1 David Fairweather He was much older than everyone else, eant first class when he’d volunteered for flight school He had a respectable-looking ray He had been Cory’s roommate since he’d arrived He let everyone know if theyto her as Grandma