I'll buy a bottle of liquor for any FAC and Bird Dog pilot types I meet that has an Air Medal.
I have a soft spot for FAC/CAS pilots of the 'Vietnam Era'.
-
If you enjoy the forum please consider supporting it by signing up for a NES Membership The benefits pay for the membership many times over.
-
Be sure to enter the NES/Pioneer Valley Arms February Giveaway ***Smith & Wesson SD9VE 9MM***
Purple heart
- Thread starter zboys
- Start date
I'll buy a bottle of liquor for any FAC and Bird Dog pilot types I meet that has an Air Medal.
I have a soft spot for FAC/CAS pilots of the 'Vietnam Era'.
Rat187
NES Member
Like us, they flew so much they DGAF about silly shite.....
And yes FAC jockeys were special; I'll never ever forget them...our life and the lives of grunts deep 'in the shite' depended on their professionalism.
And yes FAC jockeys were special; I'll never ever forget them...our life and the lives of grunts deep 'in the shite' depended on their professionalism.
Just to be clear, not like me. I worked for, and trained, under men who were there. My squadron CO had an Vietnam era AF Cross as a PJ and you wouldn't know it from him.
Rat187
NES Member
Well then, you were trained by the best
I knew a chopper pilot, did 2 tours, lots of combat. He had 14 air medals. How the hell do you bronze/silver star that?
I was reading about it yesterday. When you got four silver OLCs, they just authorized a second ribbon alongside the first; it's why they went to numerals.
Talk about a participation award. The original criteria specified a certain number of sorties. It was intended to be a rare medal, and in WWII it was, but then they invented helicopters. And, suddenly, an eight-hour B17 run over Bremen in 1943 became the equivalent of a 20-minute round trip to a hot LZ in 1966. Both were a "sortie."
Eventually there came to be all sorts of complicated ways to log and calculate various different kinds of rotary flight, all so that they could keep track of how many Air Medals a guy was entitled to.
dustoff22
NES Member
Can't think of much worse !!!
On a different note, I have two Purple Hearts, one was my father's (WW1) and one mine (Vietnam). They both appear the same but his is significantly heavier and has his name on the back. Mine has no name and I don't remember anyone telling me to take it to Post Clothing to have it engraved.
dustoff22
NES Member
My recollection is that (Vietnam specific that is) 25 hours of logged "Combat" time equalled one Air Medal. Nothing to do with sorties.
In my company, the only time you logged "Combat Hours" were when you were actively picking up casualties in the field. We had other missions that did not involve "Combat" such as patient transfers from hospital to hospital, hospital to hospital ship, or from hospitals to AFB's for evacuation to Japan. Those flights were not logged "C" for Combat but "S" for support and not considered for hours toward an Air Medal.
The purple heat in question was made by a company called Lordship enterprise. The marking under the crimp broach dates it to around 1980’s. Unfortunately military medals get tossed aside by family all the time. Unfortunately it having the engraving removed will make it impossible to find the original awardee.
In a side note the company lordship was busted in 1996 for selling Medal Of Honor’s .
In a side note the company lordship was busted in 1996 for selling Medal Of Honor’s .
Last edited:
