Long-delayed Silver Star to be awarded

It wasn’t American soldiers that Capt. Jack Nicholson went to rescue one night in December 1963. But it didn’t matter to him that they were his Vietnamese allies.

Growing up dirt poor as one of seven children on a farm in rural Iowa, he had learned to look out for more than his kin. As far as Capt. Nicholson was concerned, any comrade in the fight against communism was worth risking his life for.

“I felt like what I was doing there was very important for our country, for the South Vietnamese people, and for the world because we were trying to deter the expansion of communism - a heartless, joyless, phony form of government,” the 75-year-old retired brigadier general recalls with the gruffness of a battle-worn commander.

And on Wednesday morning at Fort Myer, the Army will give the Iowa farm boy a long-delayed Silver Star in recognition of the 13 lives he saved on that moonless evening in the Mekong Delta.

Among those on hand will be the South Vietnamese general whose men a young Capt. Nicholson fought to rescue. And the American officer whose efforts have prompted a forgetful bureaucracy to honor his bravery decades later.

Today, Gen. Nicholson remembers his ordeal in exquisite and painful detail - the humidity hanging like a wet and heavy blanket on his back; the mud-brown drinking water; the stench of rotting corpses.

He draws back in conversation to the death smell that he still cannot shake. But the sacrifices of war remain a proud scar on his psyche.

That night two days after Christmas 46 years ago, he and his South Vietnamese men - reduced under fire from 240 to 39 during a chaotic, eight-hour firefight - rescued 13 of their wounded soldiers, carrying them out on their backs for six more hours under intense fire.

Four of the South Vietnamese would later die, but for the nine grateful wounded who survived to tell the tale of how Gen. Nicholson, known to them as “Dai uy Nick,” became a legend among the troops who learned of his compassion and valor.

Capt. Nicholson was formally recommended at the time for a Silver Star, the Army’s third-highest honor, but the paperwork was lost in the crush of war. But now decades later, thanks to a chance meeting a year ago with another retired general, Gen. Jack Cushman, “Dui uy Nick” will receive his Silver Star.

In attendance at the parade ceremony will be not only be some of Gen. Nicholson’s fellow “paddy rats” from the Vietnam War, but also Gen. Tran Ba Di, the South Vietnamese officer who would later serve 17 years in a communist hard-labor camp before making his way to America and becoming a U.S. citizen.

Gen. Nicholson is proud - of his service, his honor, and the cause.

The handsome, tough-talking grandfather, who makes his home in McLean, proudly attests that he can still fit into his military uniform, which he will wear when they pin on his chest the 1 1/2-inch Silver Star (made of gold, despite its name).

When discussing his personal accolades, he quickly rises to defend what he calls a rightful war. The lessons of Vietnam - not to abandon foreign allies - still matter, he says with some defiance, even as his son, now also a brigadier general, takes up his legacy and has served in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

“We need to stand up to have some backbone as a nation, like we’ve always had,” he says of the nation’s current war efforts. “We shouldn’t let things like this happen. We should not make the same mistakes [of Vietnam]. This republic of ours is not guaranteed. If we don’t sustain it, we’ll lose it.”

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