David Zartarian didn’t know Col. Francis “Frank” Cuddy effectively, however for the previous 5 years, he’s been preventing to provide the Vietnam Battle hero the very best army accolade – the Medal of Honor.
Regardless of the unfamiliarity, each veterans have loads in frequent. Each Cuddy and Zartarian attended the College of Rhode Island (URI), with Cuddy graduating in 1966, one 12 months earlier than Zartarian. Each served within the army in Vietnam, and so they have been close to one another on June 8, 1969, when Cuddy’s daring, order-defying rescue of a Marine Corps reconnaissance patrol group earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Nonetheless, Zartarian, an Army veteran, believes Cuddy deserves extra for placing his life on the road to avoid wasting fellow troopers, particularly in latest months with President Donald Trump awarding Medal of Honor accolades to veterans who served even earlier than Vietnam, within the Korean Battle greater than 70 years in the past.
“I see the place they’re giving awards to individuals 55 years later and Frank Cuddy is greater than deserving,” Zartarian advised Navy.com. “I lastly stated to myself, ‘I’m going to ship this out to Washington, D.C.’ to see if I can get some motion there, so I despatched emails to each the president and vice chairman, however each emails have been rejected. Apparently, their laptop system had been hacked.”
Solely three days earlier than his mission to avoid wasting the recon unit, Cuddy, a Marine Corps captain on the time, had been awarded the Silver Star. Manning a helicopter, Zartarian stated Cuddy flew 988 fight missions throughout his lengthy army profession.
Cuddy is now not right here to advocate for himself. He died in 2008 after a battle with most cancers. However Zartarian, who stated Cuddy was effectively revered at URI, deserves to be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Essentially the most prestigious award for army valor, the medal has solely been given to three,533 troopers since its inception on the daybreak of the Civil Battle (1861).
“I could be a decided man, however you get to the purpose the place each setback appears like a punch within the intestine,” Zartarian stated.
Having spent the previous few years amassing the right paperwork and speaking to troopers who served alongside Cuddy in Vietnam to construct his case, Zartarian has reached out to Sen. Jack Reed’s workplace (D-Rhode Island) to ask for assist.
“After they got here again and advised me I needed to get any individual to validate what he did from his authentic chain of command … come on,” Zartarian stated. “Am I presupposed to dig them up from the bottom? Most of these guys are useless by now.”
John F. Kiernan, who works because the army/veterans liaison for Reed’s workplace, advised Zartarian in an e mail final November that a number of necessities nonetheless must be met for Cuddy to be thought of for the Medal of Honor, however the greatest hurdle is the dearth of eyewitness statements and correct army documentation. Supplies a bit arduous to seek out for a mission that occurred virtually 57 years in the past.
“If I have been to chop by all of this, the foremost a part of the difficulty right here is the unique chain of command not being accessible to supply required statements, and in accordance with relevant award procedures, each a residing recommender and at the least one residing intermediate authority are required to assist and validate the advice,” Kiernan wrote.
In February, Kiernan emailed Zartarian with an replace, one he wasn’t trying ahead to.
“The hard-stop was the dearth of getting the chain of command weigh-in on this request. An excessive amount of time has handed and so have the service members who might have offered some validity to all this,” Kiernan wrote. “There have been different points that weren’t capable of be introduced, however (that) was the massive one. I actually needed to get this over the purpose line for you and for Col. Cuddy and household.”
Concept Started with Function Story
Zartarian’s curiosity in serving to Cuddy obtain the Medal of Honor was sparked when he learn an article written by Jeff Grosscup on Historynet.com printed in 2009. Grosscup, a Marine Corps veteran, was an artillery officer in Vietnam and helped save the American Magnificence unit, together with Cuddy.
Amazingly, regardless of dire circumstances, just one Marine was killed throughout the rescue operation, however the identify, 1st Lt. Ronald McLean, made headlines. He was the stepson of legendary actor Jimmy Stewart.
On June 8, 1969, Army Lt. David Zartarian was stationed in Da Nang, working within the American mortuary. Zartarian was solely there three days, nevertheless it was three days he’ll always remember.
As our bodies got here into the mortuary, three deaths grew to become notable – Lt. Sharon Lane, a nurse who was the one U.S. service lady killed by enemy forces throughout the Vietnam Battle, Lt. Col. Don Bartley, a chaplain filming a narrative for tv whose car struck a land mine, and McLean.
“That was a bizarre, bizarre state of affairs,” Zartarian remembers. “Right here’s a bit of tidbit for you, when you’re ever within the army and also you get assigned to any kind of place, like doing grave registration within the mortuary, you may say, ‘I need out,’ and I guess plenty of infantry guys want that they had that choice. So, I blew out of there and ended up in Chu Lai.”
Studying Grosscup’s detailed account of that fateful time in Vietnam, a well-known identify listed within the story jogged Zartarian’s reminiscence – Francis Cuddy, a fellow Rhode Island Ram.
Nonetheless, he didn’t understand Cuddy had already accomplished a couple of years of Marine Corps obligation earlier than enrolling into URI in 1962. Sgt. Cuddy figured a school training would enable him to turn out to be an officer and break into flight faculty. URI additionally allowed the athletic 6-foot-5 Cuddy to shine on the gridiron the place he logged 4 seasons of soccer for the Rams.
Along with his athletic and academic goals achieved, Cuddy pursued his subsequent purpose – changing into a pilot within the Marine Corps.
Following his demise in ’08, a pilot Cuddy served with praised his impeccable army report.
“The best of the good has left us. How is it potential for this mountain of a person, whom I referred to as a buddy, to have succumbed to most cancers when he conquered every little thing else? How unhappy that we now have misplaced one of many best Marines of the Vietnam Battle.”
In a army profession spanning practically 4 a long time, Cuddy collected greater than 60 awards and medals. Nonetheless, the Medal of Honor stays elusive.
Zartarian believes it’s time to alter that.
Courageous Mission to Save Unit
On June 6, 1969, the American Magnificence mission kicked off after a helicopter dropped McLean and his platoon on high of a hill alongside the demilitarized zone (DMZ). Simply two later, enemy troops pinned down the group and killed McLean.
By this time, Cuddy was no stranger to bailing out distressed items and adjusting plans on the fly. Solely three days earlier than June 8, he flew into heavy fireplace to assist rescue a downed medivac unit, incomes him the Silver Star. Now, as he was flying again from a mission in Laos, a transmission got here in concerning the platoon within the DMZ that wanted assist. Badly.
Flying his Huey, Cuddy and a gaggle of helicopters headed for the hill, offering defensive cowl for Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knights to attempt to rescue the maligned troops. It wasn’t working. A lot of the helicopters left to regroup, however not Cuddy’s. Defying instructions, Cuddy flew again to the hill and began firing on the enemy, offering safety for the troubled troopers.
Cuddy was wounded as bullets ripped by his chopper, absorbing 20 rounds. Zartarian stated the chopper’s exterior seemed like a block of Swiss cheese. Nevertheless it was simply sufficient to avoid wasting the platoon. A rescue squad lastly bought them off the hill and recovered McLean’s physique.
“I feel he marched to the beat of his personal drum at instances, and even thought he defied orders and went again, thank God he did in any other case all these guys would have been useless,” Zartarian stated.
Years later, in an interview, Cuddy defined his daring choice to show again when others bailed.
“Within the Marine Corps, it’s ingrained that you just don’t depart useless and wounded,” he stated. “To depart them on the market was to allow them to die.”
It was a defying act of valor that earned Cuddy the Distinguished Flying Cross, probably the most acclaimed honor for heroism in army aviation.
“These guys who flew these helicopters, and to at the present time fly these helicopters, I don’t how they get their balls of their pants,” Zartarian stated. “These are particular individuals, boy.”
