Utah man receives father's Medal of Honor decades after his death in Laos

WASHINGTON — Saying it is "never too late to do the right thing," President Barack Obama presented the nation's highest military honor Tuesday to the sons of an airman who was killed in 1968 during a top secret mission in Laos.

Utah State University professor Rich Etchberger of Vernal accepted the award, along with his brothers, Cory Etchberger and Stephen Wilson, on behalf of their father, Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. "Dick" Etchberger, at a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

"Today your nation finally acknowledges and honors your father's bravery," Obama told Etchberger's sons. "Because even though it has been 42 years, it's never too late to do the right thing."

Rich Etchberger, who was 10 when his father died, said his father would have been "very humbled to be standing next to the president."

"At the same time I think part of him would have said, 'That's what my job was,'" Etchberger said. "That's the kind of guy he was."

In March 1968, the small mountaintop radar base in Laos that Dick Etchberger and 18 other hand-picked airmen were manning was attacked by thousands of North Vietnamese soldiers. One by one the airmen were wounded or killed until Etchberger was "the only man standing," Obama said.

Etchberger had no formal combat training, the president said, and hadn't even been issued an M-16 until shortly before the attack. Still he was "the very definition of a (non-commissioned officer), a leader determined to take care of his men," Obama said.

Etchberger fought off the attackers and called in airstrikes that landed within yards of his own position. Then, when a helicopter finally arrived in the morning to lift the men from the mountain, Etchberger carried three of the wounded to the helicopter, repeatedly exposing himself to heavy enemy fire, according to the White House.

"Of the 19 men on that mountain, only seven made it out alive," Obama said. "Three of them owe their lives to Dick Etchberger."

Etchberger was fatally wounded as he was being lifted by rescue sling to the helicopter. He died before reaching base.

Rich Etchberger described his father as "a very talented person" and a "really great guy."

"He was a humble person who believed you do your job and for him, over the years, doing his job was taking car of his men," Rich Etchberger said.