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Vietnam War Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
Major Patrick Henry Brady, US Army
Among the many heroes during the long war in Southeast Asia was Patrick H. Brady, the first US Army DUSTOFF pilot to receive the Medal of Honor. The son of one of World War IIs Darbys Rangers, Brady was born in 1936 in Phillip, South Dakota. In 1959, Brady was commissioned through the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps from Seattle University. As a newly commissioned officer he attended the Army Medical Service School at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and, upon graduation, followed with an assignment to the 6th Infantry Division stationed in Germany. In 1963, after completing helicopter training at Fort Rucker, Alabama, Brady was assigned to the 57th Medical Detachment (Aerial Ambulance) flying the Bell UH-1H Iroquois, known as the Huey, for the first of his two tours in South Vietnam. During this tour he served as a medical evacuation pilot in the Mekong Delta region of South Vietnam using the detachments standard callsign, DUSTOFFpicked because the helicopters often blew dust and shelters all over the men on the ground during pickups. After serving as the Detachment Commander, he was reassigned in January 1965 to Fort Benning, Georgia, where he helped form the 11th Air Assault Divisionthe predecessor to the famed 1st Air Cavalry Division. During this assignment Brady twice deployed to the Dominican Republic in support of US peacekeeping operations. In 1967 he returned to Vietnam for his second combat tour in the UH-1H. Assigned to the 54th Medical Detachment at Chu Lai, Brady served as both the Operations Officer and as the Commander. It was during this tour that Brady flew his most heroic mission. On 6 January 1968, responding to a medevac request, Brady repeatedly faced enemy fire to evacuate wounded. After four flights and three battle-damaged helicopters, he evacuated 51 seriously injured soldiers. For his actions on this day, President Nixon presented him with the Medal of Honor. During his two tours, he developed tactical and inclement weather flying techniques and flew over 2,000 combat missions, rescuing more than 5,000 wounded soldiers. He later served as the Commander, 326th Medical Battalion, Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Chief of Public Affairs for the Army, and Secretary to the United Nations Military Armistice Commission in Korea. His career culminated as Deputy Commanding General for Active Components, Sixth US Army, Presidio of San Francisco, California. Since his retirement in 1993 as a major general, Brady has served as the President of the Medal of Honor Society, Chairman of the Citizens Flag Alliance, and Commissioner of the American Battle Monuments Commission.
SETTING: On 6 January 1968, a call was made to medevac wounded soldiers from a fog-shrouded valley near Chu Lai. Repeatedly warned that rescue missions were impossible, Pat Brady still volunteered. Six times, Brady and his crew in DUSTOFF 55 overcame intense enemy fire and miserable weather to evacuate 51 American and South Vietnamese soldiers. Using three different helicopters that were hit over 400 times, his skill and daring became legendary. Moreover, Brady mission became synonymous for a challenging and dangerous rescue operation.
Rank and organization: Major, U.S. Army, Medical Service Corps, 54th Medical Detachment, 67th Medical Group, 44th Medical Brigade.
Place and date: Near Chu Lai, Republic of Vietnam, 6 January 1968.
Entered service at: Seattle, Wash.
Born: 1 October 1936, Philip, S. Dak.
Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, Maj. Brady distinguished himself while serving in the Republic of Vietnam commanding a UH-1H ambulance helicopter, volunteered to rescue wounded men from a site in enemy held territory which was reported to be heavily defended and to be blanketed by fog. To reach the site he descended through heavy fog and smoke and hovered slowly along a valley trail, turning his ship sideward to blow away the fog with the backwash from his rotor blades. Despite the unchallenged, close-range enemy fire, he found the dangerously small site, where he successfully landed and evacuated 2 badly wounded South Vietnamese soldiers. He was then called to another area completely covered by dense fog where American casualties lay only 50 meters from the enemy. Two aircraft had previously been shot down and others had made unsuccessful attempts to reach this site earlier in the day. With unmatched skill and extraordinary courage, Maj. Brady made 4 flights to this embattled landing zone and successfully rescued all the wounded. On his third mission of the day Maj. Brady once again landed at a site surrounded by the enemy. The friendly ground force, pinned down by enemy fire, had been unable to reach and secure the landing zone. Although his aircraft had been badly damaged and his controls partially shot away during his initial entry into this area, he returned minutes later and rescued the remaining injured. Shortly thereafter, obtaining a replacement aircraft, Maj. Brady was requested to land in an enemy minefield where a platoon of American soldiers was trapped. A mine detonated near his helicopter, wounding 2 crewmembers and damaging his ship. In spite of this, he managed to fly 6 severely injured patients to medical aid. Throughout that day Maj. Brady utilized 3 helicopters to evacuate a total of 51 seriously wounded men, many of whom would have perished without prompt medical treatment. Maj. Brady's bravery was in the highest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit upon himself and the U.S. Army.
Bell UH-1H
Testimony of Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady (USA-Ret.), Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Citizens Flag Alliance, Inc.
Before the United States House of Representatives
Committee on the Judiciary
Subcommittee on the Constitution
March 23, 1999
In Support of H.J. Res. 33
My name is Pat Brady. I am the Chairman of the Board of the Citizens Flag Alliance. We are a coalition of some 138 organizations representing every element of our culture, some 20 million souls. We are non partisan and have one mission and one mission only: to return to the people the right of the people to protect their flag, a right we enjoyed since our birth, a right taken away from us by the Supreme Court. We, the people, 80% of us to include the 49 states who have petitioned congress and 70% of that Congress, want that right back.
But our concerns are not sentimental, they are not about the soiling of a colored fabric, they are about the soiling of the fiber of America. We share with the majority a sincere anxiety that our most serious problems are morally based, and that morality, values and patriotism, which are inseparable, are eroding. This erosion has serious practical consequences. We see it in sexual license, crimes against our neighbors, our land, in our failure to vote, our reluctance to serve and in the level of disrespect we have for our elected officials.
And we see a most visible sign in the decline of patriotism in the legalized desecration of the symbol of patriotism, our flag. Because it is the single symbol of our values, our hope for unity and our respect for each other, the legalized desecration of Old Glory is a major domino in the devaluing of America.
Supreme Court Justice John Harlan spoke about the connection between patriotism and flag desecration when he said, "love both of the common country and the state will diminish in proportion as respect for the flag is weakened." And there can be no doubt that respect for the flag has weakened. And that is tragic because when love of the country is diminished, so is our country.
Respect for our flag has, throughout our history, inspired the values that our patriots died for, values that make us the most respected nation on earth. Those values are vital and inspirational to our children, and to our future. Old Glory is the greatest training aid we have to instill patriotism in our children.
A patriot is one who loves, supports and serves his country. A patriot will take their love to the highest level - to sacrifice. Their love is the very foundation for the security and prosperity of this country. But we must be a lovable people, if we are to be worthy of sacrifice. Are we? Many gave their lives for the country they served, how many would give their lives again for the country we are becoming?
And this is the most serious danger of becoming a less lovable, a less inspirational, a less patriotic country, that it will result in the spawning of generations who will not care for their country, who will refuse to serve or to sacrifice for America, no matter how legitimate and imminent the threat. And who will encourage the same behavior in their children.
Military weakness will guarantee war and defeat. Moral weakness will guarantee the defeat of democracy. Burning the American flag is the sign of moral weakness in an individual. To legalize the burning of the American flag is the sign of moral weakness in America. When we have lost the symbol of our liberty, how long will it be before we lose the substance of our liberty?
Although our concerns are practical, the flag certainly evokes a sentimental response from many of us. It is a constant reminder of the horrors suffered by so many to bring us the bounty that is America. But it was adopted for practical purposes, it was the glue between the Declaration and the Constitution, it unified 13 very diverse and disparate colonies. It marked our place among the nations of the world. It was the trademark of freedom. Sentiment aside, its greatest worth is practical. The flag ignited the fire in the hearts of our patriots, burning the flag will put that fire out.
I think it is important that when we speak of values, we are speaking to and for our children. Nothing that is said in this debate will change adults or our values, it is too late for us. We are done. It is the children who are forming their values that are important.
The highest form of patriotism is service to our youth. The flag is the greatest training aid we have to teach our children patriotism, respect and citizenship. Pearl Buck, in describing the treasures that are our children, tells how the flag is such a precious symbol to children and so important to their development. The greatest tragedy in flag mutilation is the disrespect it teaches our children, disrespect for the values it embodies, and disrespect to those who have sacrificed for those values. How can we teach our children respect when they are free to burn the symbol of respect? Disrespect is the genesis of hate, it provokes the dissolution of our unity, a unity which has only one symbol - the flag.
We are not here to change the Constitution, we are here to reclaim, to restore the Constitution. We would never do anything to harm the Constitution. Most patriots have not done a lot of speaking and writing about the Constitution, but they have done a lot of working and fighting for it. They are the source of all the freedoms in the Constitution, in fact, of much of the freedoms throughout the world.
It is not the Media who gave us freedom of the press. Our patriots did. It is not the ACLU who gave us freedom of speech. Our patriots did. It is not the campus demonstrators, burning our flag, who contribute to peace. It is the men and women who served and sacrificed under the flag, and who respect the values it embodies, who are our real peace demonstrators. They have demonstrated for peace by contributing to our strength which is the very essence of peace.
They see no threat to any freedom in their efforts to recapture their flag, rather they see the threat in the defilement of the symbol of freedom. They all understand the right to free speech, and would die for that right, what they do not understand is that defecating on the flag is speech.
Speech is the persuading power that moves people to the ballot box, and those elected to the will of the people. Flag burning is the persuading power of the mobs. One should not be allowed to substitute hateful, violent acts, for rational, reasonable speech, to be heard. That is the last resort of those who cannot properly articulate their cause but seek power at any cost. It is certainly cowardice, and terrorism, to take ones venom out on helpless individuals or objects who cannot defend themselves. And it is moral cowardice to ignore such acts.
Flag burning is not speech, it is conduct and neither conduct nor expressive conduct are in the First Amendment. We are strengthened in this conviction by the members of five Supreme Courts in this century who have defended the right of the people to protect their flag. But the greatest authority is the men who framed the First Amendment and adopted the first flag, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. These great Americans denounced flag burning as an assault on our sovereignty, a crime, and not in any way speech.
We are amazed at those who say the flag symbolizes the freedom to burn it. Who could seriously believe that anyone died so that the flag could be burned? Our patriots did not give so much of body and soul, on the battlefields of this century, to keep the likes of Hitler, Kim Il Sing and Ho Chi Minh from dishonoring our flag, to see it dishonored on the streets of America.
The beauty of the flag amendment is that it does not change the Constitution. It simply takes the control of the flag away from the courts, who have ruled that defecation on the flag is "speech," and returns that control to the people where it resided since our birth. This amendment restores the Constitution to where it was before the Court amended it in 1989. Another beauty of this amendment, for those who want a statute, is that once the people regain control of the flag it can then be protected only by congressional statute.
Ironically, the only path to a statute is by way of the flag amendment. And that statute will then be subject to congressional vote and presidential veto.
We wonder why some express fear of a slippery slope, that this amendment, if passed, will lead to many more amendments. Why should doing something right cause us to do something wrong? And what is wrong with amending the Constitution if that is the will of the people? The courts have been amending the Constitution for years according to their will without regard to the will of the people.
The people take their responsibilities to the Constitution very seriously. There have been some 11,000 attempts to amend the Constitution. The people have allowed it to happen only 27 times. And in every instance that the people amended the Constitution, it has been improved. The First Amendment, women's voting and the abolition of slavery are examples.
We have a proven record of the non-effect of flag protection on freedom.
We are offended by those who say our effort represents a tyranny of the majority. They would have us believe that a super majority of the people, the states and the Congress are ethically inferior to a small minority who oppose this amendment. The true danger to America is that a minority who were raised on different playing field than the rest of us, most of whom never saw a battlefield, will exercise a tyranny over an indifferent and apathetic majority.
Our veterans spent much of their lives in confrontations with a minority who thought they knew better than the majority what was best. Far too often they forced their will on the majority. In Berlin where a minority build a wall around the majority and then shot those who tried to climb it. In Korea where a minority has enslaved the majority and forced the people to treat them as deities. And in Vietnam where a minority killed millions after we failed to protect them. All of us saw what Hitler and a minority did to Germany and the world.
The founding fathers foresaw the dangers of a tyranny of the minority and that is why they put the amendment clause in the Constitution, to insure that its ownership did not pass to a minority in the courts or the Congress. Thomas Jefferson said, "I readily suppose my opinion is wrong, when opposed by the majority." And, "It is my principle that the will of the majority should always prevail"
The wisdom and morality of the majority is the source of democracy and our protection against tyranny.
We are convinced that our laws should reflect our values. Where in the Constitution does it say that toleration for conduct that the majority sees as evil is necessary for our freedom? Toleration for evil will fill our society with evil. Even those who oppose a flag amendment profess to be offended by flag desecration. Why tolerate it? What possible connection does toleration of evil have to the Constitution and our freedom?
We are dismayed at the insensitivity of those who would trivialize this issue. Many tell their constituents that flag burning is rare, only a handful since 1989. That is not true, there have been hundreds. Over 300 in one cemetery alone. In my state they have flag sitters to protect flags from the coffins of loved ones which are flown on patriotic holidays. This is a most cynical argument. What has the frequency of an event have to do with whether it is right or wrong? It doesn't happen often that the President is threatened, or someone jokes about bombs on an airplane, or shouts fire in a theater, or kills a bald eagle, but these things are wrong and should be unlawful -- and they are.
To those who say we are trying to make felons of flag burners, not true. If it were up to me I would handle it as a ticket. Send them to class and attempt to teach them how vital respect is in a society as diverse as we are. Forty-seven states still have statutes against flag desecration and in 40 of those states, flag desecration is only a misdemeanor offense. The Congress, when it establishes a flag desecration law of the land, will certainly follow the rule of the majority of the States.
The flag protection amendment is a perfect example of democracy at work. It is the majority in America exercising their right to rule, to demonstrate who is in charge here. The Supreme Court, a minority, by one vote, forced the American people, the majority, to accept flag desecration. Those who want the right to protect their flag are not trying to force the minority to accept flag protection, or even to respect the flag. We are trying to force the government to let the people decide, to take the flag out of the hands of a minority and give it back to the majority who can then protect it if they will.
The Constitution gives us the right to peacefully protest an action of the nation. That is what we are doing. It does not give us the right to violently protest the foundation of the nation. That is what the flag burners are doing.
We agree with the President who said that Francis Scott Key's Star Spangled Banner was a treasure and asked all Americans to save it for the ages. We are asking the same for all Star Spangled Banners.
There are great and gifted Americans on both sides of this issue. And learned opinions, but only one fact - the American people want their flag rights returned. Whatever concerns some may have, I pray they will muster the courage to believe that this once they may be wrong, and the American public may be right. I hope they will have the compassion to defer to those great blood donors to our freedom many whose final earthly embrace was in the folds of Old Glory.
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