Regarding those Congressional Medals of Honor given out last week.....

[djean111]

Turns out one of my high school classmates wrote up the commendation for Santiago Jesse Erevia, and had always wondered what happened to it. He thought that perhaps he had not written the commendation up as well as he could have, that it was his fault.
Kind of disturbing that Congress passed the bill to look into the possibility of discrimination in 2002, and the recipients just now got their recognition. Erevia is one of the three still living.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-c1-medal-of-honor-20140314-dto,0,5055478.htmlstory#axzz2wiBou8xK

Using an ammo crate as a chair and an Army tent as his office, Pfc. John "Mac" MacFarland set up his typewriter and began to write.

It was the sweltering summer of 1969, about a month after the fierce battle of Tam Ky in South Vietnam. MacFarland had been ordered to write a recommendation nominating Spc. 4 Santiago Jesse Erevia for the Medal of Honor, and he tried to put into words how Erevia's "conspicuous gallantry" had saved so many fellow soldiers.

"Although Erevia could have taken cover with the rest of the group," MacFarland wrote, "he realized that action must be taken immediately if they were able to be relieved from the precarious situation they were now in."

MacFarland, a 23-year-old college student who had been drafted, spent weeks working on the nomination, sure that Erevia, a 23-year-old high school dropout who had enlisted, would be awarded the medal. MacFarland sent the recommendation up the chain of command.

"And then I never heard another thing," MacFarland recalled decades later.

.......

[pinboy3niner]

1. MacFarland's lines did, indeed, wind up in the Medal of Honor citation

Last edited Sat Mar 22, 2014, 03:06 PM - Edit history (1)

I'd looked up Erevia's original Distinguished Service Cross citation out of curiosity as he'd served in my sister battalion in Vietnam (he was 1/501 Inf; I was 2/501).

When I watched the White House ceremony on TV later, I recognized that the new citation was mostly the same wording that was used for the DSC, based on MacFarland's original write-up.

[djean111]

2. Thank you for that information!

Was just looking at the pictures in the yearbook (we have a great website for our class), and feel proud of Mac and also a profound sorrow that any of you had to go through any war at all. Thank you.