IN THE CASE OF:
BOARD DATE: 17 January 2013
DOCKET NUMBER: AR20120012085
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 that he be awarded the Air Medal for air assaults made in Vietnam.
2. The applicant states, in effect, that he should be awarded the Air Medal for air assaults made in Vietnam.
3. The applicant provides a list of the helicopter flights he remembers making in Vietnam.
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 applicants 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 applicants 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 in Minneapolis, Minnesota on
8 June 1966. He completed basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and advanced individual training as a light weapons infantryman at Fort Ord, California. He was transferred to Korea on 17 March 1967.
3. He departed Korea on 15 September 1967 and he was transferred to Vietnam on 17 October 1967 for assignment to Company C, 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division for duty as a grenadier and squad leader. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant on 3 February 1968.
4. On 27 May 1968, he departed Vietnam and he was transferred to Oakland Army Base, California where he was honorably released from active duty on
30 May 1968 as an overseas returnee. He had served 1 year, 11 months, and 23 days of active service. His DD Form 214 shows that he was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Silver Star, and Bronze Star Medal.
5. His official records contain no flight records or records of any kind to document helicopter flights made by the applicant. His records also show no evidence of being awarded the Air Medal. Additionally, a search of the Awards and Decorations Computer-Assisted Retrieval System, an index of general orders issued during the Vietnam era between 1965 and 1973 maintained by the Military Awards Branch of the U.S. Army Human Resources Command, failed to reveal orders awarding the Air Medal pertaining to the applicant.
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. 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:
1. While the sincerity of the applicants claim that he should be awarded the Air Medal is not in doubt, the applicant has failed to show through sufficient evidence submitted with his application or the evidence in the available record that he met the requirements for award of the Air Medal.
2. Inasmuch as there is not sufficient evidence to show that he met the requirements for award of the Air Medal, it must be presumed that the applicant was not qualified for award of the Air Medal.
3. Therefore, in the absence of such evidence, there appears to be no basis to grant his request at this time.
BOARD VOTE:
________ ________ ________ GRANT FULL RELIEF
________ ________ ________ GRANT PARTIAL RELIEF
________ ________ ________ GRANT FORMAL HEARING
____X___ ____X___ ___X__ _ DENY APPLICATION
BOARD DETERMINATION/RECOMMENDATION:
1. The evidence presented does not demonstrate the existence of a probable error or injustice. Therefore, the Board determined that the overall merits of this case are insufficient as a basis for correction of the records of the individual concerned.
2. The Board wants the applicant and all others concerned to know that this action in no way diminishes the sacrifices made by the applicant in service to the United States during the Vietnam War. The applicant and all Americans should be justifiably proud of his service in arms.
_______ _ 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) AR20120012085
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ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20120012085
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