Would you help right a 39 year old wrong?

Hi,

I'm asking for help from the members of ATS who are willing to contact the White House and request that an injustice be corrected after 39 years. I would love to see this situation corrected before the 40th anniversary of the event.

This is just one instance that probably affects thousands of Viet Nam vets as well as thousands of vets injured in the subsequent activites since the Viet Nam war. But for now, I'm being selfish and centering on two veterans who were not ever issued the Purple Hearts they deserve.

Terry L. Morris
John H. Whittington

Terry is my brother and he is the sole survivor of a helicopter crash in October 1969. He is burned over 60% of his body. He was the co-pilot of the chopper and his best friend, John Whittington, was the pilot. My brother was able to get out of the burning chopper and pull his friend, John, out. He then got John over to a rice patty where they waited for the med evac. John lived almost a month before succumbing to the horrors of the burns that ravaged his body. My brother remembers listening to John screaming in the night. And he states they had to sew John's eyes closed.

The military deemed this an "accident" and a non-combat related incident. To my brother's knowledge he was never interviewed about what happened. He fears that if MI did, in fact, question him, that it may have happened in the days immediately following the incident when he was delirious and soaking in tanks to have his flesh scraped from his body. He says he can remember vivid dreams of the helicopter flying upside down through tunnels and such nonsense.

The fact of the matter is, there was no such thing as non-combat during this time. And the fact of the matter is that the true cause of this crash was never determined. The last thing my brother heard before the chopper began to spin was a pop from behind him and to the right. He said it sounded like small arm's fire, but also could have been a hydraulic hose popping. But he doesn't know, and as you will see - neither does the military.

My brother almost died. He suffered double pneumonia, kidney failure and his blood became poisonous to his own body as it tried to fight the toxins the body encounters from severe burns. He is a miracle, and he is my hero - always has been and always will be. He went through numerous surgeries and has lived his life since that fateful day with scars all over his body beginning from his sweet face down (even the unburned parts because that's where they scraped skin to do the graphs). He served more than 25 years in law enforcement before retiring to a quiet life.

In the past few years Terry found Aaron Whittington - John's son who was only 1 or 2 years old at the time of the crash. He has learned a lot about his father through his relationship with my brother. John's son and family deserve to have the Purple Heart he earned. My brother deserves his.

I wrote the first Bush administration back in the 90's requesting the case be reviewed and received no response. I'm asking now for your help - will you help by contacting the White House? This is not a "drive", it's not a petition, it's a request to get support from others by you directly contacting the White House for both Terry's and John's behalf. Will you?

You may submitted your letter in two ways:

email: [email protected]

or snail mail:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Please make sure and use Terry L. Morris and John H. Whittington's names specifically, the crash date, and you can even include further details that could assist in this effort from this page which has details of the crash:

www.flyarmy.org...

For those willing to do this, my gratitude is unending.

Thank you.

[edit on 2-17-2008 by Valhall]

I want to throw my name on this since Terry is my personal HERO as well.

Let's see what this community can do with emails and letters for the Veterans of the US Armed Forces.

It makes me wonder how many Canadian, British, Irish, Scottish, etc... soldiers are out there hwo have not been recognized? With all the sacrifice these people and their families endure while they serve this just isn't right.

Springer...

Done and Done

Taking a moment to email the WH with this request is the least I could do.
Many thanks for the sacrifices of all Men and Women who fought back then and still fight today for our great country.

reply to post by Valhall


Hi Val-

I noticed in the helecopter report that there was also a passenger, J.C. Boswell, FCO, ( Forms Control Officer??? ), that survived the crash. I've spent some time on the net this morning trying to find, ( him? ), but haven't been able to get any hits. I wonder if he could help with your quest? I'll keep looking. . .

2PacSade-

Hey Val

I'm not a US citizen but I emailed them anyway. I hope you don't mind but I copy/pasted some of your OP and adapted it. This is what I sent:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I'm writing regarding two veterans who were not ever issued the Purple Hearts they deserve.

They are:

Terry L. Morris
John H. Whittington

Terry L. Morris is the sole survivor of a helicopter crash in October 1969. He is burned over 60% of his body. He was the co-pilot of the chopper and his best friend, John Whittington, was the pilot. Terry was able to get out of the burning chopper and pull his friend, John, out. He then got John over to a rice patty where they waited for the med evac. John lived almost a month before succumbing to the horrors of the burns that ravaged his body. Terry remembers listening to John screaming in the night. And he states they had to sew John's eyes closed.

The military deemed this an "accident" and a non-combat related incident. The fact of the matter is, there was no such thing as non-combat during this time. And the fact of the matter is that the true cause of this crash was never determined.

Please, PLEASE review this case. I am not a US citizen, but I am aquainted with a relative of Terry, and I think this sort of bravery and suffering on behalf of one's country deserves as much recognition as possible.

Thanking you

I hope it helps

Thank you so much! I plan to put a few picks of Terry and John taken during their time in Viet Nam to give faces to these two!

i will gladly oblige-

also--if i was you and really wanted this to happen----i would start a petition on the ecare petition site---i bet you'd get tons of sigs and there are a lot of activist and am sure many would be sentimental to your cause.it seems many of the petitions there make a difference and make a differe3nce and result in "victory" there's over 8 million members---if i was you i'd want this done immediately go for the gusto---between the million of ats and 8 mill there you shouldn't have much problem making someone at least have to hear you out. good luck!!

a link to their site
www.care2.com...

look under petitions-----then- create a pettion

your brother is brave and seeing burn patients first hand---it is horrible and so painful--i can only imagine the courage to fight that battle and the mental anguish with losing his co pilot.

It would be nice to get this one on the front page

How about a few flags folks?


errr... not on THIS post lmao... put the flags on the original post

[edit on 18/2/2008 by Dagar]

Hi Val
I have a friend who is involved with the V.V.A. I think he being a fellow Viet Nam vet would be sympathetic to your cause. With your permission, I would like to forward your post to him. I do not know what he can do, but for you I would like to try.

My dad was a vet of the same war and I was a member of the Sons of Viet Nam Vets. I have had the privilege of escorting the Moving Wall across state lines and was honored to be there. I truly hope you get your wishes realized my friend.

John

Thank you all!

Shadow - yes yes you have my permission.

shorty - I will start a petition this evening!

I'm so excited! We might actually get this fixed this time! I went it alone before, but now I have friends to help. w00t!

i went ahead and sent something to them regarding the incident. Best of luck to you!

I actually sent an email to the Vice President. Is that good enough? i will send a letter via postal mail if you wish.

here is the response as of now....will keep you posted:
Thank you for e-mailing Vice President Cheney. Your comments,
suggestions and concerns are important to him. Unfortunately,
because of the large volume of e-mail received, the Vice
President cannot personally respond to each message. However,
members of the Vice President's staff consider and report
citizen ideas and concerns. Please visit the White House web
site for the most up-to-date information on Presidential
initiatives, current events, and topics of interest to you.

Thank you again for taking the time to write.

[edit on 18-2-2008 by Jeff Riff]

[edit on 18-2-2008 by Jeff Riff]

Sent email, might also recommend you contact The American Legion and the Veterans of Foriegn Wars groups. They can also assist and help you get what these men rightfully deserve.

American Legion Link

Veterans of Foreign War Link

Originally posted by 2PacSade
reply to post by Valhall

 

Hi Val-

I noticed in the helecopter report that there was also a passenger, J.C. Boswell, FCO, ( Forms Control Officer??? ), that survived the crash. I've spent some time on the net this morning trying to find, ( him? ), but haven't been able to get any hits. I wonder if he could help with your quest? I'll keep looking. . .

2PacSade-

Hi Pac,

I know that the report states that, but I can tell you that no one other than my brother survived. Note that the report heads that list with "passengers and/or other participants". Mr. Boswell may have been involved in some manner, but he was not in the crash. I will get hold of my brother and ask him about this, but I believe that I remember my brother talking about Mr. Boswell and that he may have been a witness to the crash (that would place him as a participant I assume). Note that it does not list him as KIA. Now, you have to keep in mind that what you are looking at on that page is put together by members of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association so while it relies on as much official data as their members can provide, it is not an official military entry and could have errors. What I have noticed in researching this is that (just like in many other areas of research on the web) it appears that an error gets propagated verbatum across multiple sites.

I will get back with more specifics after speaking with my brother so that you have more to look at on the web. The more you learn, the more info we might have to submit to assist in getting the Purple Hearts.

Thank you so much for the time all of you are putting in! You are the greatest!

Would like to point something out that is a bit of a discrepancy between how the crash is logged, how my brother's injuries are recorded, and how John's death is listed. This discrepancy could be the key to victory in requesting the Purple Hearts.

See this webpage:

www.flyarmy.org...

This lists John Whittington's panel location on the Vietnam Memorial wall. John is also listed as KIA.

www.flyarmy.org...

but on that same page down where it says "Casualty type" they list "non-hostile - died illness or injuries" (DNBI basically).

The crash is listed as non-combat and it is this "non-combat" title that is the reason my brother has not received his Purple Heart.

Val.....

Consider it done. If this approach doesn't give it a jump start with at least a courteous response..... then I will create a "Dave Rabbit" rant and put it up through my military feeds and see if that can stir the cages a bit. Please let me know if this needs to be done.

Dave

Thank you, Dave.

What I would like to do next is get my brother to give me his personal account of what happened. Please keep in mind that immediately after my brother got home from his stay at Brooks in the early part of 1970 he talked to my grandmother about what happened and then did not speak to anyone about the event again until around 1996. I never will forget that evening because I was honored to be there at my other brother's house when he finally decided to recall everything. It was like watching a movie as my brother told about it.

That's why I want to get him to write up in the detail he told it then so I can share his account with you all. I also would like to share some of his pics that have been sent to him by old buddies that served with him in Vietnam. He even has a pic of the chopper that went down. I will put that up next so that certain questions that have been asked, or may have not been asked but people are wondering about can be put out there.

My brother also won a special commendation for rescuing troops pinned down under heavy crossfire. I would like to get the details on that and what the commendation is called so that I can share more of what he and John did during their service prior to this event.

[edit on 2-18-2008 by Valhall]

P.S. And my brother doesn't know I'm doing this. **snicker**

reply to post by Valhall


Mr. Boswell is a bit of an enigma because I cannot find any record of his military service as a "W1" warrant officer.

I also noticed the discrepancies you mentioned with respect to commander Whittington being KIA, yet the panel account shows Nov 24th 1969 as the incident/death date. The other "participants" that were KIA show Oct 28th 1969 as the incident/death date.

Obviously the major stumbling block is the fact that the incident is listed as rotor/engine malfunction, or possibly pilot error. That's why I was hoping that Boswell was still alive & could possibly verify if the "POP" was indeed small arms fire, which in turn would classify this as a combat related incident.

It's just not fair that classifications like this exist to keep deserved honor from being bestowed. Who cares if it was combat related or not. These people were serving their country, deployed in a theater of battle which puts them in harm's way. Everyone injured should receive a purple heart IMHO.

I will send a request to the WH & also keep digging. Let us know what your brother says Val & good luck!

2PacSade-