Someone sends us their work on this fellow, Enrique Rodriguez, who claims that he earned a Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in Vietnam. WGN reports that the owner of a car wash franchise in Illinois is one of the most decorated soldiers of the Vietnam War;
Rodriguez is the face outside Mr. Car Wash most days of the week. While he’s a familiar face to the locals, some have no idea he is also one of the country’s most decorated Vietnam veterans.
[…]
Rodriguez was just 19 when he went to fight in Vietnam. It was that same year, Sept. 28, 1968, that Rodriguez will never forget. Charging an enemy bunker alone, Rodriguez was credited with rescuing his wounded platoon leader and saving the lives of many members of his squad. He returned home two years later with a uniform covered in medals including two Purple Hearts, the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and a Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second highest honor.
Here is the 1970 newspaper article from Pharr, Texas that he showed to prove his DSC to the WGN reporter;
The problem is that the DSC was awarded to Captain Enrique P. Rodroguez, not SP4 Enrique (no middle name) Rodriguez;
I guess we can’t blame the reporter for not spotting fake news from the ’60s, but you have to ask yourself why Rodriguez was able to get away without showing an actual DSC citation.
Anyway, he did two tours of Vietnam, both with the 101st Division. He was at Fort Bragg less than a month after his first trip to Vietnam when he deserted. The Army rewarded him with another trip to the war a few months after he returned to duty.
His MOS was in the 72-series of messengers and the 71-series of clerks.
No DSC, no Purple Hearts, no Silver Stars, and just one Bronze Star Medal.
Update; AnotherPat brings up a valid point – that being Rodriguez stole much of his narrative of phony feats from the DSC citation of Santiago Jesus Erevia who we talked about last year when he passed away.
Both Rodriguez and Erevia were Specialists and both were in 1/501 in May 1969, Erevia was in Charlie Company and Rodriguez was a clerk in Headquarters Company. I guess Rodriguez thought that it would be easy to pull off stealing valor from Sergeant Erevia.
From the Pharr, Texas newspaper article;
“During the skirmish, the Pharr Soldier killed seven reds, one when he made a one man assault on an enemy bunker, rescued his wounded platoon leader, and was credited for saving the lives of many members of his squad.
SP Rodriguez was acting as a point man for his platoon as it swept through a village. He discovered a line of bunkers manned by North Vietnamese Army Regulars and his platoon was immediately hit with automatic weapon fire and command detonated mines.
Although wounded in the first barrage, SPC Rodriguez began hurling hand grenades onto the enemy positions, killing two North Vietnamese soldiers.
He sought cover behind a haystack, and from there, saw his squad leader lying wounded and unconscious only 15 meters from the enemy bunkers. With intense firing whining past him, SPC Rodriguez crawled forward, reached the wounded man and dragged him back to the shelter of the haystack.
Ignoring the pain from his wounds and armed with two M-16 rifles and hand grenades, SPC Rodriguez moved back into the line of fire, crawling toward the bunkers.
He tossed grenades that wiped that wiped out three of the bunkers and killed more North Viet soldiers, leaving only one enemy bunker operating and inflicting casualties on the U.S. squad.
With no more grenades left, SPC Rodriguez charged the bunker with both M-16 rifles on full automatic fire. He circled, entered from the rear and killed the final enemy soldier with a burst of fire at his head from point blank range.”
