Soldier's bravery garners Medal of Honor decades later

WASHINGTON - For decades, Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. "Dick" Etchberger's courage under fire was kept as secret as the mission that placed him on a remote Laotian mountain, high above the clouds, in March 1968.

Now, his bravery that day can be written in stone.

President Barack Obama recognized Etchberger posthumously Tuesday for service "beyond the call of duty," giving him the nation's highest military award, the Medal of Honor. Obama said those three words can now be etched into a granite monument to Etchberger's memory at Barksdale Air Force base in Louisiana.

Etchberger, 35, was part of a radar team attacked by North Vietnamese soldiers at Lima Site 85, an installation helping to direct U.S. bombing of Hanoi. The mission was secret because the United States was not supposed to have troops in neutral Laos.

The radar technician from Hamburg, Pa., with no training in combat, acted on instinct. Using an M-16 and a radio to call in air strikes, he single-handedly held off the attackers until helicopters arrived at dawn. He braved enemy fire to help three wounded comrades into rescue slings. Climbing into the chopper after the others, Etchberger was fatally wounded when enemy fire struck the aircraft. The others made it to safety.

"We knew that he was that kind of person," one of three sons, Richard Etchberger, who shares his father's name, said. "He would be here just saying 'I was doing my job up there.' "

Etchberger was secretly honored by the Air Force months after his death and his wife, Catherine, knew the truth of his mission. His children, and others, at first did not. Two decades later, the government declassified Etchberger's mission. - AP