The AWOL Bronze Star – Part Two
The AWOL Bronze Star
PART TWO
March 17, 2014
The VFW hall in Brighton, Michigan was packed. Andy’s wife Marsha, his sons Jeffrey and Justin, daughter Rachel and her husband Antinie, extended family, a seven-member honor guard, members of his church, friends, and eight B Battery veterans. Two of them – Tommy Mulvihill and Tony Bongi – were there the night of August 28.
The following is an excerpt from The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus
Vietnam vet recognized for
‘Michigan toughness’
U.S. Army Pfc. Andrew Kach, a Brighton Township resident, on Monday received the Bronze Star Medal with a “V” device for valor in a ceremony at the American Spirit Centre in Brighton Township.
U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Howell, presented Kach with his medal.
“The men I served with, every one of them bears the scars of serving their country at LZ Sherry,” Kach said after receiving his medal.
“Most people run from danger. They ran to it,” he added.
Kach served with the B-Battery Fifth of the 27th Artillery.
He explained that his unit, nicknamed both “The Professionals” and “The Bulls,” was under constant enemy attack during the war.
Eight members of Kach’s unit traveled from all over the country to see their comrade recognized for his service.
“We didn’t bend to the resistance. The Bulls stood strong and did their job no matter what the cost. And there were many that paid the ultimate price for that stubbornness,” he said.
“This medal is more about them than me. The men that are standing here with me, this is your medal as well as mine,” Kach added.
He individually saluted each of the surviving members of the unit in attendance.
Rogers’ office worked on a service affidavit compiled by Capt. Henry Parker, Kach’s captain during the war.
Parker said it took just over three years to confirm Kach’s medal through the U.S. Army. He said the military requires verified accounts of service, a challenge for a war fought more than four decades ago.
Parker said 12 members of the unit were killed in combat. Kach was one of many Michigan members wounded.
“We had a lot of guys from Michigan and they brought Michigan toughness and stubbornness, they were good, good guys,” he said after the ceremony.
“We cared for one another. Our job was to put steel on the enemy, but take care of your guys,” Parker added.
Kach’s son, U.S. Air Force Technical Sgt. Jeffrey Kach, has served eight tours of duty in the U.S. Air Force in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Rogers said it’s important to know soldiers earn medals rather than win them, and that each medal signifies a sacrifice.
“It means they gave up some time away from their family. It means they engaged in an act of bravery that we all hope that we would do that many of us won’t be asked to do because they stood in our place,” he said.
U.S. Congressman Rogers presenting Andy the Bronze Star Medal with “V” Device for Valor
Photo copyright Rik Groves
After his formal remarks Andy began telling stories – of sleeping on the perimeter with his M16 across his chest, of his innocence in the hanging of Farrell’s monkey, of the night he and Mulvihill got caught outside the wire after dark. The stories tumbled out as the crowd prodded him with, “Tell the one about ….” At each story the room laughed, then cried, then laughed again. Those in the room who knew Andy knew he could go on for hours, and seemed to be all in favor. The buffet was waiting, and a quiet voice from the front row somehow cut through the clamor. “Andy,” Marsha said, “That’s enough stories.” Marsha is his sure foundation in life, the woman who “picked me up as a lump of coal and is slowly making me into a rough diamond.”
Captain Parker:
To have the battery guys there that served with him, which was just overpowering. And to see the pride in his sons and daughter, his family and friends, and most importantly his wife Marsha. That was very moving for me. It further validated the guys who were there from B Battery, it validated their service. It was also very satisfying to First Sgt. Durant and to General Crosby. They both are very aware of how these oversights can happen. In a combat situation it happened too often.
Jeff said to his father after I gave Andy the Bronze Star at Ft. Sill, “Dad, I’m not going to honor that Bronze Star until you have orders.” Andy related that to me and said he felt the same way. He was not going to wear the medal without official orders. He said he did not want to get in trouble for a valor violation.
I told Andy, “You’re gonna get orders.”
It just shocked me that the process was this complicated. I figured with general Crosby signing, that would be all it would take. For them to insist that I get the original chain of command sort of puzzled me a little bit. I said to Andy, “It seems like you’ve got the pull teeth to get awards for Vietnam vets and especially for the artillery.
And I think some of that has to do with the artillery not structured to give awards like the infantry does. In the infantry they get their awards done because they recognize the importance more than the artillery did. I don’t think the Army appreciated the role of the artillery in Vietnam. Often we had more contact with the enemy then the infantry did.
I remember around the August 12 incident that it came back to me I was abusing the awards system for putting guys in for Bronze Stars. My response was I saw what the infantry did to get their awards, and I could certainly compare what our guys on the guns did to be even more brave than what I saw guys in the infantry do. The artillery had to stand tall under fire. The infantry could take cover.
I knew what I was talking about because I was a forward observer with the 3/506 Airborne Infantry for most of my first tour in Vietnam. I was out there on patrol with them to call in artillery fire, and because of that I earned a Bronze Star with “V” for Valor. On another tour I earned the Combat Infantry Badge (a highly coveted award given to infantrymen who came under hostile fire. No other branch has a comparable award). I could get behind a rock or tree and shoot. Or I could look out and call in fire. But at LZ Sherry you were out in the open on your gun and you continued to pump rounds out. To me that’s an act of valor.
I really felt bad because I kept Andy in the field when he was injured. The battery was full of walking wounded because we were very short of men. I impressed it on the doc could he stay or not stay. If you look at the record for both Andy and Jerry Cleaton, who was wounded the same night, they said their wounds were just scratches anyway and they weren’t really hurt and not to notify their parents. And I look back on that and reflect on it, that was probably adrenaline working. I did that with Tony Bongi too, kept him wounded in the field, and I really felt bad about that. But the reality was our mission was ongoing and I didn’t have much of a choice.
That’s one of the reasons I worked so hard on Andy’s medal. The other is that some guys left LZ Sherry without the awards that they should’ve had.
You know I made up Combat Artillery Badges and orders, and sent them out to all the guys. To recognize artillery guys who came into direct combat with the enemy, equivalent to the badge the infantry gets. Congress would not act to create the award, so I did it for them. I could probably go to jail for it, but I figure three squares a day and a cot ain’t a bad life.
Andy:
First Sergeant Durant was like a father to us. One thing I liked about him was when we’d get in say 1600 rounds of ammunition; he’d get in the line and hump the rounds with the rest of us. Our previous first sergeant would never do that.
Durant saw a picture of me in my uniform when I was acting as an honor guard for a military funeral. He calls me up and tells me I’ve got my ribbons on backwards. I had my Army Commendation ribbon on in front of the Purple Heart ribbon. He told me the Purple Heart always goes first. So for the Bronze Star he tells me he’s going to be checking I don’t put it on backwards.
If you look at infantry guys almost all of them have medals of one kind or another. It seems like the Army did not like giving medals to the artillery. I serve on an honor guard with a guy who was with the 101st Airborne, the 3rd/ 506 after it left Phan Thiet and went up to Da Nang. He was a clerk typist. I saw on his uniform that he had a Bronze Star and I said,” What did you get the Bronze Star for?”
He is kind of a joker and said, ”I dropped a typewriter on my foot.”
