Maj. Charles S. Kettles, an Army helicopter commander in the Vietnam War, led an extraordinary rescue operation that saved the lives of dozens of airborne troops who had been ambushed by North Vietnamese soldiers in May 1967. President Barack Obama would later describe the incident as “like a bad Rambo movie.”
Major Kettles was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army’s highest citation for valor after the Medal of Honor, in 1968.
But the story of his heroism and those of his fellow helicopter crewmen remained largely unknown beyond military circles for nearly half a century.
That changed on July 18, 2016, when President Obama presented Mr. Kettles, a retired lieutenant colonel, with the Medal of Honor at the White House.
Mr. Kettles, who died on Jan. 21 in Ypsilanti, Mich., at 89, had been the central figure in a harrowing episode.
“A soldier who was there said, ‘That day, Major Kettles became our John Wayne,’” Mr. Obama said. “With all due respect to John Wayne, he couldn’t do what Chuck Kettles did.”
On May 15, 1967, Major Kettles was a flight commander with a helicopter assault company that had flown soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division into the Song Tau Cau river valley in South Vietnam. Soon afterward, the unit radioed to the helicopter company, stationed nearby, that it was suffering casualties at the hands of enemy troops firing out of fortified bunkers and tunnels.
Major Kettles volunteered to lead a flight of six helicopters to evacuate the wounded. His helicopter and those flying alongside him were raked by fire while extricating many of the wounded on the first two rescue trips that day. Major Kettles made it back to his base after a second foray with fuel leaking from his craft and his gunner severely wounded.
When the airborne commander radioed that he still needed emergency evacuation of 40 remaining troops as well as four helicopter crewmen who had been stranded helping carry out the earlier rescues, Major Kettles led a third trip into the valley, flying a different helicopter.