Richard Loy Etchberger

Chief Master Sergeant Etchberger was a member of the 1043rd Radar Evaluation Squadron, 7th Air Force. In early 1967, he volunteered for a sensitive assignment named Project Heavy Green. He was placed on temporary duty with Lockheed Aircraft to establish a secret radar site, called Lima Site 85, located on a mountain called Phou Pha Thi near the town of Sam Neua, Laos. He was assisted by 19 other airmen. They spent three months of gathering valuable information. On March 11, 1968, the communists launched an attack on the unarmed site and overran it. He assisted six of the surviving men by loading the wounded into slings to be lifted to a rescuing helicopter. After boarding the helicopter, he was mortally wounded by enemy fire. His remains were recovered on March 11, 1968 and identified on March 12, 1968. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial. For his great valor, he was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously by President Barak Obama.