That said, is that enough to justify a Silver Star or CMoH or any medal at all? That's for someone else to decide. To me - anyone that dies trying to save another is a hero, whether they are soldiers or civilians, pilots or cooks, passengers or firemen.
Many of us go thru life without ever having such a chance, and those that sacrifice something other than their life for the sake of another could also be called a hero. Think of what you personally have sacrificed for your children, and of the values that you have instilled into them. The best that we can hope for is that our child will look at us and consider us their "hero". From the little I know about you - I believe that your children already have.
You betcha! He clearly (in MY mind) earned a Silver Star for his actions on the ground. Please note that he did NOT savethe life of the crewman. The guy was hooked to the helicopter with a safety line,and there was no danger of him falling to the ground. Roberts was merely helping him back into the helicopter. As I stated before,his actions once he fell out of the helicopter qualifies him for a Silver Star,which is nothing to sneeze at. There are only two higher valor awards given by our country,and one is the MOH.
I pinged Chapita to get him to put a link here about how Roy Benavidez earned his MOH so those of you unfamiliar with these awards can compare the actions. Roy jumped out of a helicopter in Laos while only armed with a knife,and went to try to rescue a recon team that had all the members severely wounded and unable to move on their own. By the time it was over he had been wounded a bunch of times himself,had crawled to a crashed and burning helicopter with a broken back to resuce both the pilot and co-pilot,and as a final act,left his Bowie knife stuck in the ribs of the NVA who bayonetted him as he was trying to climb into the rescue helicopter that finally managed to land. He wasn't even supposed to be there to start with. He heard the distress call on the radio at the base camp,and jumped on a helicopter in case he could help.I mentioned this case because both involved leaving helicopters under fire while basically unarmed.
BTW,this takes NOTHING away from what Roberts did. This ain't a contest.