Rocky Versace - Medal of Honor

I don't know if this has been posted yet, but Humbert "Rocky" Versace has been awarded the Medal of Honor by Pres. Bush for actions taken against his Vietnamese captors during the war.

There is live coverage of the ceremony on FOX News right now.

[JJC_15]

A Mission Inspired By a POW's Persistence
N. Va. Soldier Earns An Overdue Honor

By Steve Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 8, 2002; Page B01


Rocky Versace's friends will be there today at the White House. The high school buddies from Alexandria who decided they had to do something to honor Versace, dead now 37 years. The postal worker from Cleveland galvanized after reading about Versace's ordeals. The members of the West Point Class of 1959 who picked up the fight for their classmate. The family he left behind.

Versace, an Army captain from Alexandria executed by his Viet Cong captors in 1965, when he was 27, is to be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor today by President Bush for the extraordinary resistance he displayed under terribly cruel conditions. He will become the first Army soldier to receive the award for his actions while in captivity, defense historians say.

That Versace is now being honored is due in no small measure to those relentless friends.

"The effort to get this guy the medal was itself heroic and displayed the same kind of persistance that Rocky had," said Stuart Rochester, deputy historian for the Pentagon and co-author of a history of POWs in Southeast Asia.

They faced daunting odds: The fact that Versace is the first soldier so honored reflects a stigma within the Army to being a prisoner of war, defense officials say. Versace also was a victim of the politics of the Vietnam War. Finally, the two soldiers who were held captive with Versace died in the intervening years, making corroboration of his heroism more difficult.

Today's ceremony culminates a series of events over the Independence Day weekend that brought Versace belated recognition.

On Saturday, in the neighborhood where Versace grew up, several hundred people turned out for the dedication of the Captain Rocky Versace Plaza and Vietnam Veterans Memorial, in honor of all 65 Alexandrians killed in the war.

"Rocky was our friend. He was a soldier," retired Army Brig. Gen. Pete Dawkins, a West Point classmate of Versace's, said in the keynote address. "He was killed because honor, duty and country meant more to him than life."

Versace's father, Humbert Versace, died brokenhearted within a few years of his son's death, and his mother, author Tere Versace, never stopped believing her son would emerge from the jungle. She died in 1999. For those remaining -- including his brother, Dick Versace, an NBA general manager -- grief has now been tempered by gratitude.

"One of the things that has been continually amazing to me is how this has captured so many imaginations and so much energy," said another brother, Stephen Versace, a University of Maryland administrator. "People have actually put their lives on hold to make this happen."

He thinks he knows why: "It's the memory of Rocky and what he went through."

Humbert Roque Versace was less than two weeks from leaving Vietnam when he was taken prisoner. Versace, raised in a Catholic family in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, had been accepted into the priesthood and planned to return to Vietnam as a missionary for children.

Serving as an intelligence adviser for the South Vietnamese army, Versace was captured along with two other Americans in October 1963 near U Minh Forest and held within the mangrove and swamps of the Viet Cong stronghold. He tried to escape four times and resisted all attempts to be indoctrinated by the Viet Cong and, for this, was often kept in irons and gagged inside a bamboo cage.

"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."

Versace, his head swollen, his hair white and skin yellowed by jaundice, was pulled around villages with a rope tied around his neck by his angry captors. Villagers were astounded by his defiance, according to Jack Nicholson, a retired Army officer who searched for Versace.

In September 1965, Hanoi Radio announced that Versace had been executed in retaliation for the killing of suspected communist sympathizers.

Another prisoner who had been held with Versace, James "Nick" Rowe, escaped in 1968 after five years of captivity. Meeting privately with President Richard M. Nixon the following year, Rowe requested that Versace receive the Medal of Honor, describing how the captain had deflected punishment from other captives.

Nixon hugged Rowe and told liaison officers to "make damn sure" that Versace receive the medal, one of the officers, retired Col. Ray Nutter, said in an interview last year.

The Army would issue Versace only a Silver Star. While the other services approved Medals of Honor for POWs, there was resistance in the Army to awarding prisoners. The decision also reflected a desire not to highlight casualties, owing to the antiwar climate in the United States. "There was an attempt to play it down for political reasons," Rochester said.

Rowe kept telling Versace's story until 1989, when he was assassinated by communist rebels while serving in the Philippines as a U.S. military adviser to that country.

But others kept Versace's memory alive. A group of Alexandria high school friends, some of whom had known Versace as boys and gathered once a month for a book club, picked up the mantle.

"It started with these guys who'd get together and drink beer and talk about books on Civil War history," said Stephen Versace. At a gathering in early 1999, talk turned to a school Alexandria was building at Cameron Station, a former Army installation. Somebody said naming the school after Rocky would be appropriate.

The Friends of Rocky Versace was born. Soon supporters were at grocery store parking lots circulating petitions. "We really did not know what to say to them," said Alexandria City Council member David G. Speck (D). "Frankly, they seemed a little flaky, and we assumed they would gradually go away."

They did not. They soon made a critical alliance with Versace's West Point classmates and linked up with other Versace supporters, among them Duane Frederic, a Cleveland postal worker who had read Rowe's book about his captivity, "Five Years to Freedom," and had been struck by Versace's actions.

"I'm one of these people who wants to know the rest of the story," Frederic said.

Frederic traveled to the National Archives and other information repositories, spending hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to hunt for records and corroborating information in a quest to honor a man he had never known.

"He became Rocky's historian," Stephen Versace said.

Among the critical pieces he uncovered were interrogations of North Vietnamese defectors telling of Versace's resistance and the consternation it caused his captors.

At the Army Special Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., where Rowe's talks about Versace's heroism had made a deep impression on many officers, Maj. Bobby Seals was ordered by superiors in 1998 to revive the Medal of Honor effort. "Honestly, I looked at it, and I thought, 'There's no way. The three guys who were in the POW camp were all dead. How the hell are we going to pull this off?' " Seals said.

But using the information compiled by Frederic, a new Medal of Honor package was submitted to the Pentagon by the Special Forces Command in January 2000. Influential members of West Point's Class of 1959 privately pushed the nomination with senior Army officers.

The nomination still faced a struggle at the Pentagon. "It was apparently a close call because of the lack of corroborating evidence," Rochester said.

But the corroboration dug up by Special Forces and Frederic, and the campaign waged by the classmates and Friends of Rocky Versace, proved decisive. In January 2001, the Army approved the package.

In the meantime, the school-naming effort in Alexandria was defeated, but it evolved into the memorial plaza at the Mount Vernon Recreation Center on Commonwealth Avenue. Speaking to civic groups, holding bike washes and passing out information at the Alexandria Farmer's Market, Friends of Rocky Versace raised $250,000 for the memorial.

"Almost everyone they talked to would get roped in," Stephen Versace said.

One of those roped in was Speck, the skeptical council member who would become the memorial's leading proponent. Speaking at Saturday's dedication, Speck said, "I have never felt so fulfilled as to be part of this glorious endeavor."

At the dedication, a moment of silence honored Gary Smith, a member of Friends of Rocky Versace who was killed in the Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon. At another event Saturday, Frederic and Mike Faber, president of Friends of Rocky Versace, were made honorary members of the Class of 1959, with more than 80 classmates in attendance.

"The more people who got involved with Rocky's story, the more compelling it became," Faber said. "The way he honored his commitment to our country, you can't help but be amazed by Rocky."


© 2002 The Washington Post Company

[wally]

How strange, "Black Diamond" Bob Seals was my first team leader in SF. He is as tenacious as a bulldog. Godd to see him still hanging in.

[cutawayxx]

SERE was worth it with meeting Dan Pitzer and learning what happened to POWs in Viet Nam. After reading 5 years to freedom a hundred times, I could tell Dan was telling us don't do what Rocky did but glad too see CPT Versace finally recognized for his sacrifice and courage (name, rank, SSN, and F' with enemy).

[CPTAUSRET]

Totally deserving of the highest honor this country can bestow, should have happened years ago:

Small world, I flew gunships w/Ray Nutter (RVN 65-66), he was shot down, his co-pilot KIA on a failed rescue mission for Nick Rowe around Sep/Oct 66. The mission took place in the U-Minh, my aircraft took something on the order of 36 hits on one fire suppression run:

Victor Charlie (actually the NVA), were ready, and waiting for us:

Terry

[CPTAUSRET]

Just resurrecting this thread for those who don't know the story:

Terry

[Gypsy]

Thank you for doing so..for us newer members. In my opinion this and other stories of service and heroism are what should be included in American history class...

And thank you Sir..for all of your service to our Country.

Lorene

[Alex F]

Thanks for bringing the thread back up.

Alex

[CPTAUSRET]

Gypsy:

I appreciate your comments:

I think that thread should be mandatory reading for everybody:

Any man Nick Rowe calls a hero............

Terry

[CPTAUSRET]

Alex:

As I said to Gypsy, I really believe this thread should be read by all who inhabit SOCNET:

Terry

[Gypsy]

Originally posted by CPTAUSRET
Gypsy:

I appreciate your comments:

Terry

You are more than welcome Sir...my pleasure to be able to state them.

Lorene

[CPTAUSRET]

Gypsy, Alex:

Another thread that should be required reading. "The Courage of Sam Bird":

Terry

[Alex F]

Originally posted by CPTAUSRET
Gypsy, Alex:

Another thread that should be required reading. "The Courage of Sam Bird":

Terry

I'm searching for that now. Thanks!

/edit

I met Rescorla and many of the other surviving members of the unit portrayed in the movie "We were soldiers" in 92 in DC at the 1st Cav reunion... the book was in its first edition and both authors and as many of the veterans as they could get to come were there. My copy is signed by those men, many of the signatures welcoming me home as a brother Cavalryman (I was in the Gulf in the 1st Cav, in the infantry).
It's one of my prize possessions. I couldn't believe it that Mr. Rescorla died on 9/11... I was saddened to hear that he was gone, but when I heard how he went I knew that was the only way he would go.

Alex

[yotanka]

Originally posted by Alex F
I was in the Gulf in the 1st Cav, in the infantry...

Hand Salute to you Alex! Thank you for your service to our Country. You are appreciated.

Jennifer Martinez sends

[Gypsy]

Originally posted by CPTAUSRET
Gypsy, Alex:

Another thread that should be required reading. "The Courage of Sam Bird":

Terry

Indeed Sir....I responded on that thread to bump it. Thank you for providing the information.

Alex: My grandfather was in the 1st Cav! Many, many moons ago... Your service to our Country is much appreciated, thank you.

[Alex F]

Gypsy and Yotanka:

Knowing that good people like you still appreciate military service is reward enough, no thanks are necessary (although appreciated).

:)
Alex

[CPTAUSRET]

I'm bumping this cause everyone here needs to read it, and hopefully understand:

Terry

Good deal, because I am nearing the end of the book Five Years to Freedom and this information was nice to know. I don't want to say too much more and ruin the simple fact that he was strong and brave as ever, as were his companions. Moving book it was too.

[myclearcreek]

The book has been added to my reading list. Thanks for the reminder.

Rhonda

[CPTAUSRET]

I'm bumping this thread:

Terry

[TigerHooter]

Originally posted by CPTAUSRET
Just resurrecting this thread for those who don't know the story:

Terry

There has never been better instructors for the Code of Conduct than the lives of the men quoted in these posts. I went through SERE long before Rocky was given his due, but knew his name, his story, from people like Dan Pitzer and Nick Rowe.

Thanks again for re-posting it. I just wish it wasn't 'preaching to the choir'; that young service'people', as well as civilians, could know what 'living the code' actually means.

TH
NSDQ

[CPTAUSRET]

Originally posted by TigerHooter
There has never been better instructors for the Code of Conduct than the lives of the men quoted in these posts. I went through SERE long before Rocky was given his due, but knew his name, his story, from people like Dan Pitzer and Nick Rowe.

Thanks again for re-posting it. I just wish it wasn't 'preaching to the choir'; that young service'people', as well as civilians, could know what 'living the code' actually means.

TH
NSDQ

TigerHooter:

I was really saddened that we didn't get to Nick on that raid, we lost something like 75 Nung merc's, who didn't even make it off the LZ:

I need to sit down and write the story up some day:

Terry

[Sneaky SF Dude]

Please do sir. I would love to read it. My old Company SGM was in that camp before Col. Rowe and was releaved by then Lt. Rowe's Team. Unfortunately, he has passed.

[CPTAUSRET]

Originally posted by Sneaky SF Dude
My old Company SGM was in that camp before Col. Rowe and was releaved by then Lt. Rowe's Team. Unfortunately, he has passed.

Sneaky:

Pappy Kittleson was on that raid, he is the only american to have been on 4 POW raids (rescue attempts):

Terry

[flashbang]

I need to sit down and write the story up some day:

Terry [/B][/QUOTE]

Sir:

Thanks for bringing this thread back to the front.

With all respect, please don't wait 'till "some day" to write the story up. Ya' know what I am talking about?

Best wishes;

Bill

[myclearcreek]

Bump.

[CPTAUSRET]

Originally posted by CPTAUSRET
Sneaky:

Pappy Kittleson was on that raid, he is the only american to have been on 4 POW raids (rescue attempts):

Terry

Ammended to read Pappy Kittleson, SF CSM retired:

Terry

[Anakin]

I've just read this thread. I agree, I think everyone should read this. RIP Captain Versace.

[CPTAUSRET]

A bump for those who haven't read the story:

Terry