February 11, 2000
By Daniel Muñoz, Jr.
There is no higher honor, and nothing
says more about a person than to be recognized with The Medal
of Honor - you are a hero. This week Alfred Rascon was recognized
as a Hero.
On March 16, 1965 Specialist (medic) Alfred Rascon, U.S. Army,
and his platoon were in Long Khanh Province, helping another platoon
that was pinned down by the enemy. In his words, it was "ten
minutes of pure hell."
While under intense enemy attack, Rascon dashed through flying bullets and exploding grenades to reach a fallen comrade. While attending to a fatally wounded machine gunner, Rascon was hit with shrapnel and shot in the hip. The bullet went parallel to his spine, and came out by his shoulder. Ignoring his own injuries, he dragged his comrade to safety and crawled back through the area of heaviest fire with ammunition for a machine gunner who was pinned down and hopelessly trapped.
Several grenades then landed nearby. One of them ripped his mouth open. When he saw another land near Private Neil Haffey, he covered him with his body, absorbing the brunt of the blast. Yet another grenade landed near Sergeant Ray Compton, and Alfred covered him, too.
Then, barely able to walk, bleeding from his ears and nose, he ran to recover a machine gun that the enemy was about to capture. The extra firepower kept the enemy from advancing - Alfred Rascon saved his platoon.
Alfred Rascon was so badly wounded that day he was given last rites.
"We bestow the medal knowing
America would not have survived were it not for people like him,
who, generation after generation, have always renewed the extraordinary
gift of freedom for their fellow citizens," stated President
Bill Clinton during the awards ceremony.
"Under any circumstances, a Medal of Honor ceremony is an event of great importance. Today is especially so: For the rare quality of heroism on display that long-ago day in 1966," said Clinton. "For the long, patient wait for recognition. For Alfred's decision to devote his life both before and after 1966 to a nation he was not born in."
For Rascon the recognition almost didn't come at all.
Rascon was recommend for the Medal of Honor by the men he saved
that day. Somehow the paperwork was lost. Rascon received the
Silver Star instead.
It wasn't until 1993, when one of the men he saved learned that Rascon did not receive the Medal of Honor, did the wheels start rolling toward the ultimate recognition. Fellow platoon members Ray Compton, Neil Haffey and Larry Gibson sought to correct the oversight.
Initially the Pentagon would not reconsider Rascon's case because so much time had elapsed, but with the assistants of Rep. Lane Evans, D-Ill, President Clinton received a packet of information about Rascon in 1997.
The Pentagon relented last May, and Defense Secretary William Cohen approved the honor in November. 34 years after his heroism Rascon finally received his Medal of Honor.
Alfred Rascon was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, the only child of Alfredo and Andrea Rascon. His parents immigrated to the United States, settling in Oxnard, California, where he attend elementary school, not speaking a word of English.
Undeterred he graduated from high school and enlisted in the United States Army, he became a medic for a platoon of paratroopers; the first of the 503rd Airborne Battalion of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. His immigration status never came up.
Alfred was once asked why he volunteered to join and to go to Vietnam when he was not even a citizen. And he said, "I was always an American in my heart."
"I wanted to give back something to this country and its citizens for the opportunities it had give me and my parents," stated Rascon. "Those paratroopers who served with me in the reconnaissance platoon knew nothing of my immigrant status. It was never an issue. They simply knew me as Doc."
In 1996 Rascon was honorably discharged from active duty and placed in the Army Reserves. In 1967 he became a naturalized citizen and after recovering from injuries, he graduated from the Army's Infantry Officers Candidate School and in 1970 was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry.
During the ceremony Rascon asked his platoon to stand and be recognized. Rascon stated: "What you see before you is common valor that was done every day, and those of you who served in the military, and continue to serve in military , are very much aware of that. What you do every day, it is duty, honor and country, And I'm deeply grateful to be here."
In recognizing Rascon, President Clinton said, "On that distant day, in that faraway place, this man gave everything he had, utterly and selflessly, to protect his platoon mates and the nation he was still not yet a citizen of."
Rascon was to say, "I did it because I had to do it and that's all there is to it. I don't consider myself a hero -- anybody in combat would do the same thing for their buddies and friends. We were all colorblind, we were all different nationalities; the important thing is that we were Americans fighting for America."
Contributions from the Associated Press and the White House Press Office.
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