IN THE CASE OF:	  

		BOARD DATE:	  26 April 2012

		DOCKET NUMBER:  AR20110020687 


THE BOARD CONSIDERED THE FOLLOWING EVIDENCE:

1.  Application for correction of military records (with supporting documents provided, if any).

2.  Military Personnel Records and advisory opinions (if any).


THE APPLICANT'S REQUEST, STATEMENT, AND EVIDENCE:

1.  The applicant requests removal of the Air Medal from his DD Form 214 (Armed Forces of the United States Report of Transfer or Discharge).

2.  He states he was an infantryman from October 1969 to August 1970 with Company A, 4th Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 11th Infantry Brigade, Americal Division.  He adds he has no documentation showing he should have been awarded the Air Medal.  He offers that although he flew in some air assaults, he does not believe he had the required number of air assault missions to qualify for the award.

3.  He provides no additional evidence. 

CONSIDERATION OF EVIDENCE:

1.  Title 10, U.S. Code, section 1552(b), provides that applications for correction of military records must be filed within 3 years after discovery of the alleged error or injustice.  This provision of law also allows the Army Board for Correction of Military Records (ABCMR) to excuse an applicant's failure to timely file within the 3-year statute of limitations if the ABCMR determines it would be in the interest of justice to do so.  While it appears the applicant did not file within the time frame provided in the statute of limitations, the ABCMR has elected to conduct a substantive review of this case and, only to the extent relief, if any, is granted, has determined it is in the interest of justice to excuse the applicant's failure to timely file.  In all other respects, there are insufficient bases to waive the statute of limitations for timely filing.

2.  The applicant was inducted into the Army of the United States on 23 October 1968.  He completed basic combat and advanced individual training and was awarded military occupational specialty 11B (Light Weapons Infantryman).  He served in Vietnam from 16 October 1969 to 5 July 1970.  He was honorably released from active duty on 23 August 1970 and credited with 1 year, 10 months, and 1 day of active duty service.

3.  Item 24 of his DD Form 214 shows he was awarded the Air Medal.

4.  His military service records do not contain any orders or any type of documentation showing he was awarded or entitled to award of the Air Medal.

5.  The Awards and Decorations Computer Assisted Retrieval System (ADCARS), a web-based index containing U.S. Army general orders issued between 1965 and 1973 for the Vietnam era, does not contain orders awarding him the Air Medal.

6.  U.S. Army Vietnam Regulation 672-1 (Decorations and Awards) provided guidelines for award of the Air Medal.  It stated passenger personnel who did not participate in an air assault were not eligible for the award based upon sustained operations.  It defined terms and provided guidelines for the award based upon the number and types of missions or hours.  Twenty-five category I missions (air assault and equally dangerous missions) and accrual of a minimum of 25 hours of flight time while engaged in category I missions was the standard established for which sustained operations were deemed worthy of recognition by an award of the Air Medal.  However, the regulation was clear that these guidelines were considered only a departure point.

	a.  Combat missions were divided into three categories.  A category I mission was defined as a mission performed in an assault role in which a hostile force was engaged and was characterized by delivery of ordnance against the hostile force or delivery of friendly troops or supplies into the immediate combat operations area.  A category II mission was characterized by support rendered to a friendly force immediately before, during, or immediately following a combat operation.  A category III mission was characterized by support of friendly forces not connected with an immediate combat operation but which must have been accomplished at altitudes which made the aircraft at times vulnerable to small arms fire or under hazardous weather or terrain conditions.

	b.  To be recommended for award of the Air Medal, an individual must have completed a minimum of 25 category I missions, 50 category II missions, or 100 category III missions.  Since various types of missions would have been completed in accumulating flight time toward award of an Air Medal for sustained operations, different computations would have had to be made to combine category I, II, and III flight times and adjust it to a common denominator.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS:

The applicant's military personnel record and ADCARS do not contain orders awarding him the Air Medal.  There is no evidence of record other than his DD Form 214 that shows he was recommended for or awarded the Air Medal.  Based on his own admission, he does not believe he had the required number of air assault missions to qualify for this award.  Therefore, his statement is accepted as proof that he is not entitled to award of the Air Medal.

BOARD VOTE:

____x___  ___x____  ____x___  GRANT FULL RELIEF 

________  ________  ________  GRANT PARTIAL RELIEF 

________  ________  ________  GRANT FORMAL HEARING

________  ________  ________  DENY APPLICATION

BOARD DETERMINATION/RECOMMENDATION:

The Board determined the evidence presented is sufficient to warrant a recommendation for relief.  As a result, the Board recommends that all Department of the Army records of the individual concerned be corrected by deleting the Air Medal from his DD Form 214.



      _____________x____________
                 CHAIRPERSON
      
I certify that herein is recorded the true and complete record of the proceedings of the Army Board for Correction of Military Records in this case.

ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont)                                         AR20110020687



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ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont)                                         AR20110020687



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