President Awards Unit For Heroism In Vietnam

October 28, 2009
By Julie Pace
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Julie Pace
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama awarded an Army squadron the military’s highest unit honor Oct. 20 for its daring Vietnam War rescue of fellow Soldiers, saying he wanted to help right “one of the saddest episodes in American history.”

“These vets were often shunned and neglected, even demonized when they came home,” Obama said of Vietnam War fighters. “That was a national disgrace. And on days such as this, we resolve to never let it happen again.”

In a Rose Garden ceremony, Obama gave Troop A, 1st Squadron of the 11th Armored Combat Regiment the Presidential Unit Citation, which is the highest unit award in the military and the equivalent of the Distinguished Service Cross for every man in the unit. Obama was surrounded in the fall sunshine by dozens of somber veterans of the unit, as well as some of the Soldiers they saved in the jungles of Vietnam.

The president is in the middle of an intensive review of the war he is now running in Afghanistan, including whether to send more U.S. troops into a fight that is frequently compared to the ill-fated conflict in Vietnam. The White House typically rejects such comparisons, but Obama seemed to suggest one.

“If that day in the jungle, if that war long ago teaches us anything, then surely it is this: If we send our men and women in uniform into harm’s way, then it must be only when it is absolutely necessary,” he said. “And when we do, we must back them up with the strategy and the resources and the support they need to get the job done.”

On March 26, 1970, Alpha Troop heard that another unit of about 100 men had stumbled onto a massive underground enemy bunker of North Vietnamese forces. They were outnumbered and out-gunned by about 400 enemy fighters, so the nearly 200 men of Alpha Troop set out to smash a path through the jungle, risking ambush and land mines, to rescue their colleagues, Obama said.

Though “the fog of war makes a full accounting impossible,” Obama said about 20 Alpha Troop members were wounded in the rescue and at least two died.

“These Soldiers define the meaning of bravery and heroism,” the president said.

But their bravery in what came to be known as “The Anonymous Battle” went largely unnoticed - until now. He credited the unit’s leader, ex-Army Capt. John Poindexter of Houston, for his years of efforts to ensure that his Soldiers’ service was ultimately rewarded.

“This isn’t the story of a battle that changed the course of a war,” Obama said. “It never had a name, like Tet or Hue or Khe Sanh. It never made the papers back home. But like countless battles, known and unknown, it is a proud chapter in the story of the American Soldier.”