by Jim Sheppard » Sun Sep 16, 2018 4:16 pm
"Shooting from the hip"...are you "assuming" you were awarded an Air Medal? Or, as others have asked, is it on your DD214...or, more important, do you have a citation or copy of the orders?
Original "D" Company men fell into a "Gray" area...since the the company was formed in October when we did less Airmobile operations and were mostly "mounted" using our APCs (I believe one needed 25 Combat Assaults to qualify). Adding to the lack of awards was the fact that it took a while before all the proper reporting was handled via a headquarters portion of "D" Company (Qualified Company Clerk would have been in place at An Khe with a working information flow via LZ Uplift...and I believe there was about a month "lag" before this happened).
Long story short, some "D" Company men might have been "shortchanged" on their Combat Assault totals when they transferred to "D" Company...but I cannot say for certain. If this is the case, and you did not qualify as a result, the chances are near zero that you can get the award.
If anyone has their "D" Company Air Medal orders for that group of men from the beginning 6 months or so, Contact me. I have orders from both the 1st Cavalry and the 173rd Airborne, but do not recall seeing group orders for men from "D" Company. I might have them, but I have not indexed what I have as it is over 500 copies of General Orders.