{"id":86426,"date":"2019-04-20T11:31:18","date_gmt":"2019-04-20T15:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=86426"},"modified":"2019-04-20T11:31:18","modified_gmt":"2019-04-20T15:31:18","slug":"should-this-airman-receive-the-medal-of-honor-for-laos-battle-a-congressman-thinks-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=86426","title":{"rendered":"Should this airman receive the Medal of Honor for Laos battle? A congressman thinks so"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"conran\"
\nA congressman has introduced legislation urging the president to award retired Air Force Col. Philip Conran the Medal of Honor for valor during the Vietnam War. (File photo)<\/p>\n

Mason sends us an article about Col. Philip Conran (USAF, Ret) and how Rep. Salud Carbajal, (D-CA) has introduced a bill to upgrade the Colonel’s Air Force Cross. Having read the article, I agree he is indeed deserving of the Nation’s Highest Award. See what you think:<\/p>\n

A California congressman is pushing to upgrade a retired Air Force colonel\u2019s Air Force Cross to a Medal of Honor for \u201cextraordinary heroism\u201d during a fierce 1969 battle in Laos.<\/p>\n

Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-California, on Monday introduced a bill, HR 2330, that would authorize the president to upgrade Col. Philip Conran\u2019s Air Force Cross to the nation\u2019s highest award for valor.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 6, 1969, as the United States\u2019 war in Vietnam spilled over into Laos, then-Maj. Philip Conran was part of a mission that went south when a helicopter was shot down, according to a narrative provided by Carbajal\u2019s staff. Conran took charge during the rescue attempt, and repeatedly put himself at risk to save 44 of his fellow troops, according to the leguslation.<\/p>\n

\u201cCol. Conran served our nation with the utmost bravery during the Vietnam War when he risked his own life in combat to save his comrades,\u201d Carbajal said in a statement. \u201cIt has taken far too long for our country to honor his courage, and I will continue working to help secure this well-deserved recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conran is now 82 years old, and lives in Santa Barbara, California, in Carbajal\u2019s district. He retired in 1988.<\/p>\n

Then-Maj. Conran was the aircraft commander of an H-3 \u201cJolly Green Giant\u201d transport helicopter of the 21st Special Operations Squadron, 56th Special Operations Wing, deployed to Thailand during the time of the battle. The lead helicopter was shot down in Laos, the narrative said, and Conran assumed command of the other four H-3s and one H-1 rescue helicopter, while two A-1 fighters tried to take out the enemy firing upon them.<\/p>\n

Their fuel was running low, so Conran asked the H-1 pilot to try to rescue the downed helicopter\u2019s crew, but was rejected because the area was too dangerous.<\/p>\n

\u201cMajor Conran then decided he had two choices: Depart the area, leaving his downed comrades, or attempt a rescue and reinforce the friendly troops already on the ground,” the narrative said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest of the article here: Air Force Times<\/a>
\n\"AF<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A congressman has introduced legislation urging the president to award retired Air Force Col. Philip Conran … Should this airman receive the Medal of Honor for Laos battle? A congressman thinks so<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187,406,285,74,389],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air-force","category-guest-link","category-search-and-rescue","category-the-warrior-code","category-valor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}