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The Honour of Medals

It all started at the ‘Y-Bridge’, the bridge that spans the Arroyo Canal in the 8th district of the former Saigon.  It was a full on battle for an urban area using air power, artillery, armour, against well dug in Vietcong and North Vietnamese regulars.  A tropical Grozny or a Beirut without the high rise apartments.  Unlike Groznyy and Beirut, the torture was all over in a week though the majority of streets were fronted by rubble and skeletal ruins.  Photographers and camera crews had stood exposed on the bridge to shoot the 750lb bombs dropping into suburbia while 9th division American troops with APC’s (armoured personnel carriers) and M48 tanks rolled through the ruins.  Little could I suspect that the FAC (Forward Air Controller), the guy co-coordinating and calling in the air strikes would walk through my door in Brisbane thirty eight years later.

A good friend, an ex-major of the Australian army who had served with the UN during UNTAC in Cambodia, had sent me a book for my birthday, “SOCK IT TO ‘EM BABY”.   It is Garry Coopers personal tale of a ‘Bigglesque’ career in flight and flying.  I devoured the book, anxious of another point of view of the first fighting I was to cover as a photographer after returning to Vietnam for my second sojourn.  The day after the book arrived my partner had tracked him down.  He was a Gold Coast resident and he dropped by my
Windsor home.  It is not often you get the chance to meet a real hero, a hero who has been denied one of the highest awards for gallantry during his tour of duty in Vietnam as one of several RAAF pilots assigned to work with the Americans. 

Garry ended up with the 9th Division based in the Delta south of Saigon at Tan An and then Dong Tam.   FAC’s flew a frail little high wing monoplane, an ‘01’, better known as a ‘Bird Dog’.  His call sign, inherited from his predecessor ‘Tamale 35’.  To co-ordinate the artillery and air strikes simultaneously whilst dodging helicopters and friendly Vietnamese artillery often at night at extremely low heights has been likened to requiring the skill of two circus performers, one balanced on the others shoulders, juggling a running chainsaw, an egg and a flask of nitroglycerine.   All that while trying to spot enemy movements through binoculars or pinpoint the muzzle flashes of the bad guys firing at you.  Very scary stuff indeed.  Impeccable coordination is required to avoid causing ‘friendly fire’ of/or civilian causalities, itself fraught in the densely populated rice and fruit farming zone around the capitals Southern flank.

Like the Battle of Long Tan, the date was also 18th August, just about when the sun would begin its tropical dusk plunge.  A time of fatigue and of ambush.  Near Tan An 100km South West of Nui Dat, six American choppers had already been downed by the V.C. /N.V.A, heavy contact with ground units needed artillery and fighter bomber support.  Flying in an OH23 Raven bubble helicopter, Garry was the observer, a young U.S. Warrant Officer at the controls and a brigade commander co-coordinating.  Scooting along at 100kph, at times less than a hundred meters high, they were prime duck for any V.C. with an automatic weapon.

A burst caught the fragile bird, killing the pilot, wounding the Colonel.  Another round pierced Garry’s helmet, spinning it on his head and exited through a hole in the front.  The chopper crashed in a hostile zone.  Garry dragged the Colonel clear; he had wounds and a badly injured back.   Armed with a cut-down M16 and a handgun they hid in stagnant, mosquito infested water reeds.  Throughout an incredibly fraught and frightening night they killed ten V.C.  The next morning they managed to attract the attention of a low passing gunship which circled under fire to come in and rescue the pair.  Between Garry, the injured Colonel and the gunship were two V.C. in a weapons pit so intent on firing at the chopper that they didn’t see the danger behind them.   Out of ammunition Garry brandished his gun by the barrel and hit both of them full force in the head.  He then ran towards the Huey before realizing that the Colonels injured back could carry him no further.  Garry returned for him and the chopper tried to back up to help them, by this time the gunfire was heavy all round.  After propelling the Colonel into the aircraft a crew member grabbed Garry Coopers arm as he made a death grip on the door sill.  The pilot pulled away with him straddling the landing skid.

At the MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) unit for suturing of his head wound, an US officer pinned a ‘Purple Heart’ on Cooper, congratulated him and said “you Aussies are one of a kind”.  It was only later that Garry Cooper realized the ‘congratulations’ was for the nomination of the “Medal of Honour”, America’s highest award for gallantry in the field.  Because of his Air force position, the Americans were unsure whether or not he was to be awarded the highest Air Force medal as an alternative.

The ‘Medal of Honour’ is akin to the ‘Victoria Cross’, only awarded in cases of extreme bravery.  Heroism, above and beyond the call of duty.  A bit of a problem since it is impossible or theoretically so, to be able to award the ‘MOH’ to a non-American.  The recommendation was made, rules not withstanding.  The military has always made and bent them.  This was a case where the whole U.S. staff of the 9th Division wanted it pinned on Garry.

The Australian Command in Saigon attached to the ‘Free World H.Q.’ had an order that diggers in the ‘Nam serving with US or Vietnamese units were not entitled to foreign medals.  In other wars like Korea or even now in Iraq, Australians can wear medals bestowed on them by Americans or by concerned nations.  In fact 470 odd men who served in Vietnam are due meritorious U.S. awards.  Many were also unable to wear those given by the Vietnamese.  The survivors of the Battle of Long Tan battle were all given a unit citation.  Politically forbidden, the men ended up with dolls – a respected Vietnamese gift, the officers with cigarette cases.

I have a mate, ex SAS, detached to US Navy SEALS in the Delta who is owed.  The Tunnel Rats, the Sappers are now demanding theirs.  The bravest most exemplary mob, were – the first in & last out – ’62 – ’72 AATTV (Australian Army Training Team Vietnam) who won all 4 V.C.s from the Indochina conflict, three of them posthumous.  Most of these officers and men served in Vietnamese units as advisors or attached to the Special Forces camps in the remote hills and frontier posts.  Their stacked ribbons should bear witness to other nation’s tributes.

Australia at the time was beholden to a medal quota to be dispensed from Westminster not Canberra.  Back then a Labour government in U.K. did not smile on the U.S. involvement in S.E. Asia.  A certain spite can be detected in this bitter back channel ordnance.  The awards were spiked; consigned to a filing cabinet to dust away.

By coincidence I was contacted in the late ‘90’s regarding another ‘MOH’ situation.  Back in ’66 in War Zone ‘D’, the 173rd Airborne recon platoon had come into a North Vietnamese ambush, hacking the small unit apart.  Their medic, wounded four times while shielding fallen comrades, retrieved a machine gun and ammunition and saved three more men.  He was helped into the Northern side of a football pitch sized LZ (landing zone) in the jungle during a monsoon downpour.  I had arrived at the same LZ with a company fighting from the Southern side.  As they say “it was not a good day”.  The young medic was Alfred Rascon.  His commanding officer was going to cite him for a ‘Medal of Honour’.  Three days later the Lieutenant was killed, before the documentation was completed

In 1997 his case was reopened on the insistence and patience of the surviving platoon members.  As one of his lasts acts in office, President Bill Clinton hung the blue ribbonned medal around Alfred Rascon’s neck at the White House.  It had taken three years of red tape and lobbying – the first post war ‘MOH’ to be given.  Being the only photographer there, I was invited to the White House for the ceremony and still receive a Christmas card from Al Rascon, now Head of Recruitment for American Armed Forces, every year.

Garry Cooper’s civilian life was spent flying for Cathay Pacific and Ansett among other airlines.  He has had to retire from flying 747’s due to PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), his entreaties to have his rightful decorations finally approved by Canberra forever enmired, nay embedded in the corridors of awards panels and paper trails of those who would have to ‘right the wrongs’ and straighten out post factum, 470 Australian Defence Force commendations.

When multi millionaire philanthropists spend a million plus at auction to rescue diggers VC’s for the Australian War Memorial, wouldn’t it be correct to flex the policy to have the only Australian ‘Medal of Honour’ recipient finally honoured?  It was won two years to the hour on the day of the ‘Battle of Long Tan’ that we now celebrate.

As a postscript; I was standing talking to Garry as he demonstrated his Spitfire restoration project out at Archerfield airport and he casually mentioned that his son had served in Dili in Company ‘D’, 6 RAR – exactly the same platoon shredded at Battle of Long Tan.

Article ID: 14

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Last Updated: 11-09-2008

Date Created: 11-09-2008