Posted on 07/09/2002 5:29:19 AM PDT by Billie
Thanks, Willa, it means a lot to hear you say that. Was fun spotlighting Big Bad Joe and you yesterday! Would love to see you here more often - Cool Guy is under the bright lights today. :)
Thank you, that's really nice to know, and again I want to thank you for your mail the other day and your photo for the next group of veterans. :)
Talk to us if you have time!
It was just the two of us there, but CG was hooked on Freeping from then on!
Bush Awards Posthumous Medal of Honor
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/712917/posts
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush presented a posthumous Medal of Honor Monday to Army Capt. Rocky Versace, a Green Beret who defied his Viet Cong captors and was executed in 1965. "He was fluent in English, French and Vietnamese and would tell his guards to go to hell in all three," Bush told a group of about 200 in the East Room of the White House. The audience included Versace's friends and family members, including three brothers.
The president gave the framed medal to the captain's brother Steve, who was applauded as he held it over his head and turned slowly to display it to the crowd.
Versace would have been 65 last Tuesday. He grew up in Alexandria, Va., and went to high school in Washington, White House officials said. He graduated from West Point and served as an intelligence adviser in the Mekong Delta.
In October 1963, two weeks before his tour in Vietnam was to end, Versace set out with several companies of South Vietnamese troops in a planned attack on a Viet Cong command post.
They were ambushed by a much larger Viet Cong force. Versace was wounded, but kept providing cover fire so the troops with him could withdraw.
Versace and two other officers were captured and marched to a prison camp in the jungle. Given little to eat and held in mosquito-ridden conditions, he tried to escape four times and refused to cooperate with his captors. Eventually he was separated from the other prisoners, Bush said.
"The last time they heard his voice, he was singing 'God Bless America' at the top of his lungs," Bush said.
Versace was executed Sept. 26, 1965. "Today we award Rocky Versace the first Medal of Honor given to an Army POW for actions taken during captivity in Southeast Asia," Bush said.
Appreciate your coming, and hope to see you again - never know who's gonna be there next. :)
It is way past time, but finally..... thank you, President Bush, for recognizing this Vietnam hero.....
Wonderful photo.
I wanted to thank you for asking to be on our ping list this weekend, and hope you'll include us as one of the places you'd like to visit every day. After all, many of FR's Finest are here....every day! :)
Cool Guy, you're one of my favorite FReepers! Can't wait to see you again this weekend at the tailgate party .... it' s been almost a year and half since the "Brunch" - WAY too long. Enjoy your day in the spotlight here. 
Let's see if my paw print stays put where it is supposed to be.
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