2RHPZ
06-20-2004, 02:21 AM
POW Executed in Vietnam to Be Honored for Bravery in Captivity
By Steve Vogel
Thursday, May 16, 2002; Page LZ08
More than 35 years after he was executed by his Viet Cong captors in Vietnam, Rocky Versace is close to receiving his nation's highest honor.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld recently forwarded to the White House a package that would award Versace, a former Alexandria resident, the Medal of Honor, according to family members and military officials. Legislation authorizing the medal for Versace already has been passed by Congress and signed by President Bush. A date for presenting the medal will be set by the White House.
"The family is just elated about this," said Rocky's brother, Steve Versace, an administrator with the University of Maryland in College Park.
Unlike the Air Force, Navy and Marines, the Army has never awarded the Medal of Honor to a POW from Vietnam for actions during captivity. Pentagon officials said it would be the first time in the modern era that the medal has gone to an Army POW for heroism during captivity in any war.
Green Beret Capt. Humbert Roque Versace was taken prisoner in October 1963, during an operation near U Minh Forest, a Viet Cong stronghold. Over the next two years, Versace defied his captors' attempts to indoctrinate him, so infuriating them that they executed him in 1965. He was 27.
"He told them to go to hell in Vietnamese, French and English," one of Versace's fellow captives, Dan Pitzer, who died in 1997, told an oral historian. "He got a lot of pressure and torture, but he held his path. As a West Point grad, it was duty, honor, country. There was no other way. He was brutally murdered because of it."
Another prisoner who was held with Versace, Maj. Nick Rowe, escaped after five years and later made an impassioned plea to President Richard M. Nixon that Versace receive the Medal of Honor, describing how his resistance deflected punishment from other captives and steeled their will to resist. The Army instead awarded a Silver Star to Versace.
Brother Steve Versace credits the Special Operations Command, Rocky's classmates from the West Point Class of 1959 and a group of Alexandrians called Friends of Rocky Versace for influencing the Medal of Honor decision.
The award ceremony will be "the culmination of three years of intense work on their part," Steve Versace said. "These people have put their lives on hold to help with this."
The Medal of Honor is one of two salutes for Rocky Versace in the coming months.
On July 6, a plaza in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria where Versace grew up is scheduled to be dedicated, honoring him and more than 60 other Alexandrians who died in the Vietnam War. The plaza will include a bronze statue of Versace being sculpted by Toby Mendez.
Daughter, Army Honor Korea Vet
When Arnold E. Kirk went to the Pentagon recently, he was expecting to attend a ceremony during which his daughter, Wanda Kirk-Huester, was to be rewarded for her service with the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Instead Kirk, a 74-year-old Korean War veteran from Forest Hill, Md., found himself the guest of honor at an awards ceremony presided over by Secretary of the Army Thomas White. Kirk, who fought at the battles of Bloody Ridge and Heartbreak Ridge, was awarded four medals and the Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon by White.
"It has often been said that there are not extraordinary men, just extraordinary circumstances that ordinary men are forced to deal with," White said. "[Kirk] served in a distinguished unit in the Korean War some 50 years ago and, as was the case with many soldiers of that generation, because of one thing or another, the recognition of a grateful nation for his service was not appropriately rendered at the time of his service. So we are here today to correct that."
"I was really shocked," Kirk, a Virginia native, said, according to the Army News Service. "It feels great to be honored. I was elated when they put up the Korean War Memorial, and this lets me know that anything can happen. I'm lost for words, really."
Four generations of Kirk's family attended the April 24 ceremony, including his great-grandchildren wearing Boy Scout uniforms. "It was like a Norman Rockwell painting," said Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman.
Kirk-Huester, one of Kirk's six daughters, said she wrote "hundreds of letters" and finally got a call from Col. Harold Neal from the Korean War Commemoration Committee. "It has taken about 2 1/2 years to make it all come together, and I am overwhelmed and so proud of my father," she said.
Kirk, a retired pipe fitter, served in Korea from September 1951 to June 1952 as a forward observer and engaged in the battles of Bloody Ridge and Heartbreak Ridge with the 37th Field Artillery Battalion.
After returning to the United States in August 1952, Kirk served in the reserves for four years before leaving military service in 1956 without receiving any of the medals to which he was entitled, including the Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, United Nations Medal, Korean Service Medal and the Presidential Unit Citation.
Asked why the Army put on a special ceremony for Kirk when there are so many veterans eligible for these awards, Boyce said, "Ms. Kirk-Huester's request was so unique, and she had worked on this as a surprise . . . who couldn't help out with something this nice?"
The Defense Department commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Korean War extends through Nov. 11, 2003.
"Regrettably, as we celebrate the events of the Korean War some 50 years after the fact, there are many Korean War veterans that still view themselves as participating in a war that did not receive appropriate recognition . . . but I want you to know that you are not forgotten," White said during the ceremony. "You deserve the gratitude of our nation, because a nation that forgets its defenders will itself soon be forgotten."
By Steve Vogel
Thursday, May 16, 2002; Page LZ08
More than 35 years after he was executed by his Viet Cong captors in Vietnam, Rocky Versace is close to receiving his nation's highest honor.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld recently forwarded to the White House a package that would award Versace, a former Alexandria resident, the Medal of Honor, according to family members and military officials. Legislation authorizing the medal for Versace already has been passed by Congress and signed by President Bush. A date for presenting the medal will be set by the White House.
"The family is just elated about this," said Rocky's brother, Steve Versace, an administrator with the University of Maryland in College Park.
Unlike the Air Force, Navy and Marines, the Army has never awarded the Medal of Honor to a POW from Vietnam for actions during captivity. Pentagon officials said it would be the first time in the modern era that the medal has gone to an Army POW for heroism during captivity in any war.
Green Beret Capt. Humbert Roque Versace was taken prisoner in October 1963, during an operation near U Minh Forest, a Viet Cong stronghold. Over the next two years, Versace defied his captors' attempts to indoctrinate him, so infuriating them that they executed him in 1965. He was 27.
"He told them to go to hell in Vietnamese, French and English," one of Versace's fellow captives, Dan Pitzer, who died in 1997, told an oral historian. "He got a lot of pressure and torture, but he held his path. As a West Point grad, it was duty, honor, country. There was no other way. He was brutally murdered because of it."
Another prisoner who was held with Versace, Maj. Nick Rowe, escaped after five years and later made an impassioned plea to President Richard M. Nixon that Versace receive the Medal of Honor, describing how his resistance deflected punishment from other captives and steeled their will to resist. The Army instead awarded a Silver Star to Versace.
Brother Steve Versace credits the Special Operations Command, Rocky's classmates from the West Point Class of 1959 and a group of Alexandrians called Friends of Rocky Versace for influencing the Medal of Honor decision.
The award ceremony will be "the culmination of three years of intense work on their part," Steve Versace said. "These people have put their lives on hold to help with this."
The Medal of Honor is one of two salutes for Rocky Versace in the coming months.
On July 6, a plaza in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria where Versace grew up is scheduled to be dedicated, honoring him and more than 60 other Alexandrians who died in the Vietnam War. The plaza will include a bronze statue of Versace being sculpted by Toby Mendez.
Daughter, Army Honor Korea Vet
When Arnold E. Kirk went to the Pentagon recently, he was expecting to attend a ceremony during which his daughter, Wanda Kirk-Huester, was to be rewarded for her service with the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Instead Kirk, a 74-year-old Korean War veteran from Forest Hill, Md., found himself the guest of honor at an awards ceremony presided over by Secretary of the Army Thomas White. Kirk, who fought at the battles of Bloody Ridge and Heartbreak Ridge, was awarded four medals and the Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon by White.
"It has often been said that there are not extraordinary men, just extraordinary circumstances that ordinary men are forced to deal with," White said. "[Kirk] served in a distinguished unit in the Korean War some 50 years ago and, as was the case with many soldiers of that generation, because of one thing or another, the recognition of a grateful nation for his service was not appropriately rendered at the time of his service. So we are here today to correct that."
"I was really shocked," Kirk, a Virginia native, said, according to the Army News Service. "It feels great to be honored. I was elated when they put up the Korean War Memorial, and this lets me know that anything can happen. I'm lost for words, really."
Four generations of Kirk's family attended the April 24 ceremony, including his great-grandchildren wearing Boy Scout uniforms. "It was like a Norman Rockwell painting," said Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman.
Kirk-Huester, one of Kirk's six daughters, said she wrote "hundreds of letters" and finally got a call from Col. Harold Neal from the Korean War Commemoration Committee. "It has taken about 2 1/2 years to make it all come together, and I am overwhelmed and so proud of my father," she said.
Kirk, a retired pipe fitter, served in Korea from September 1951 to June 1952 as a forward observer and engaged in the battles of Bloody Ridge and Heartbreak Ridge with the 37th Field Artillery Battalion.
After returning to the United States in August 1952, Kirk served in the reserves for four years before leaving military service in 1956 without receiving any of the medals to which he was entitled, including the Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, United Nations Medal, Korean Service Medal and the Presidential Unit Citation.
Asked why the Army put on a special ceremony for Kirk when there are so many veterans eligible for these awards, Boyce said, "Ms. Kirk-Huester's request was so unique, and she had worked on this as a surprise . . . who couldn't help out with something this nice?"
The Defense Department commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Korean War extends through Nov. 11, 2003.
"Regrettably, as we celebrate the events of the Korean War some 50 years after the fact, there are many Korean War veterans that still view themselves as participating in a war that did not receive appropriate recognition . . . but I want you to know that you are not forgotten," White said during the ceremony. "You deserve the gratitude of our nation, because a nation that forgets its defenders will itself soon be forgotten."