YPSILANTI, Mich. (AP) — A Vietnam War helicopter pilot recently selected to receive the Medal of Honor said Thursday he didn’t hesitate to volunteer leading an airborne rescue mission that saved the lives of dozens of troops despite the prospect of coming under intense enemy fire.
“There wasn’t any decision to be made. We simply were going to go and pick them up,” Charles Kettles told reporters inside a Michigan National Guard building in his hometown of Ypsilanti.
It was announced this week that the 86-year-old retired lieutenant colonel will receive the nation’s highest military honor for valor from President Barack Obama at a White House ceremony on July 18. Kettles was an Army major who led several helicopter trips to rescue wounded soldiers pinned down by enemy fire on May 15, 1967, near the district of Duc Pho in Vietnam.
“It’s certainly a great honor, but nothing will upstage the fact that we got 44 men out of there,” Kettles said during the news conference Thursday. “That award belongs to some 74 helicopter crew members each of which were requested to do their job. They did that and then some.”
