Seeking the Star: Pennsylvania veteran on mission to honor his brother killed in Vietnam

(Tribune Information Service) — Jenkins Twp., Pa., Air Pressure veteran Ralph Edwards is set to see that his brother, who was killed in Vietnam, is posthumously awarded both the Bronze Star or the Silver Star medal.

Edwards’ brother John died in a firefight on March 4, 1966, whereas giving cowl to fellow Marines who had been attempting to retreat from an ambush throughout Operation Utah. He had simply turned 20 years previous.

Ralph Edwards, 71, who’s battling most cancers, stated he hopes to dwell lengthy sufficient to see his brother given the consideration. He stated he feels authorities forms and the “administrative fog of battle” has denied his brother the award all these years.

“He was face to face with heavy machine gun fireplace. Due to it, different individuals are alive at the moment,” Ralph Edwards stated. “It takes numerous guts to tackle heavy machine gun fireplace.”

Ralph Edwards, who served 23 years within the Air Pressure, stated he is been involved with the workplace of U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Moosic, however efforts to get the navy to award his brother a Bronze Star or Silver Star have but to yield any outcomes.

Decided to be taught extra about his brother’s heroics, Ralph Edwards even acquired in contact together with his brother’s superiors on the battlefield from the battle.

John Edwards’ platoon chief Hubert Yoshida, 83, of Morgan Hill, California, stated John Edwards deserves at the least a Bronze Star.

Yoshida admits he did not know the entire story of John Edwards’ actions that led to his loss of life till a number of years in the past when he determined to jot down a e-book about Operation Utah.

“I knew he had been killed, however I did not know the circumstances as a result of so many had been killed at the moment. This award was dropped by the cracks. I most likely ought to have been extra diligent. However I wasn’t conscious of what he had performed till I began to jot down this e-book,” Yoshida stated in a telephone interview final week.

The choice to jot down the e-book got here after Yoshida discovered a letter John Edwards’ father wrote him after Yoshida despatched him a sympathy letter in 1966.

“Fifty years later I reread that letter,” Yoshida stated. “The letter from Edwards was a motivator to jot down the e-book.”

Whereas researching for the e-book, Yoshida stated it turned clear “all of us noticed a bit of” Operation Utah, “however we by no means noticed the entire battle.” He is hoping to vary that together with his e-book.

Yoshida shared some excerpts of his e-book, which incorporates in depth components about John Edwards.

“I wrote a letter to his household explaining the circumstances of his loss of life and expressing my condolences. I acquired a letter again from his father expressing how proud he was of his son. At the moment, I used to be a younger man. I used to be married however didn’t but have youngsters. I stored that letter and I reread it so a few years later, having raised my very own son now. I can higher admire how devastated a father or mother should really feel over the lack of a son at such a younger age,” Yoshida wrote.

Employees at Cartwright’s workplace stated the congressman is working with the navy to correctly acknowledge John Edwards.

“Congressman Cartwright totally helps the efforts of Capt. Ralph Edwards to see his brother’s unit-saving valor and sacrifice in Vietnam formally acknowledged, and he requested an replace from the Marine Corps on the standing of the case this week, whereas stressing the significance of the case and a decision of it,” stated Wendy Wilson, Cartwright’s director of communications. “After reviewing parts of the case document, comparatively latest communications about it from the Marine Corps, the present laws and software standards for valor recognition, and the Marine Corps stance on satisfying the entire necessities, our workplace is now working with each the Marine Corps and Mr. Edwards to resubmit an Award Nomination Bundle that may consequence within the official recognition of the heroism of Lance Cpl. John Jay Edwards that his brother and father have sought for therefore a few years.”

John Edwards is buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Hanover Twp. subsequent to his dad and mom, Frank and Jacqueline Edwards, each World Conflict II veterans.

The slain Marine spent most of his adolescence in Kingston earlier than his dad and mom moved the household when he was round 15-years-old. He graduated from Immaculate Conception Excessive College in Lock Haven with goals of getting into the Marines.

He enlisted after commencement.

On account of his father’s adorned navy standing and political connections, John Edwards acquired stationed in Key West, Florida, to serve with a Marine Corps honor guard, a a lot safer task than others his age, his brother stated.

“He didn’t wish to do this. He joined the Marine Corps to battle. He volunteered to go to Vietnam a lot to the priority of my dad and mom and grandparents,” Ralph Edwards stated.

In Vietnam, John Edwards was assigned to 1st Platoon, Lodge Firm, 2nd Battalion, seventh Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.

John Edwards and his unit had been “concerned in a few of the most intense preventing of the battle” in the course of the battle that killed him, Yoshida wrote in an affidavit recommending him for the Bronze Star.

To be eligible for a Bronze Star a service member should show “heroic or meritorious achievement or service” whereas engaged in an motion in opposition to an enemy of america or an opposing international power, in response to the Marine Corps.

To justify this ornament, the accomplishment or efficiency of responsibility have to be above what is often anticipated and enough to differentiate the person amongst these performing comparable duties.

Ralph Good, John Edwards’ squad chief in Vietnam and a Bronze Star recipient, has additionally penned an affidavit to testify about John Edwards’ bravery in Vietnam.

“He was completely fearless in fight,” Good wrote. “I’m positive he knew precisely what he was doing by partaking that machine gun and he was keen to pay no matter it price to guard his fellow Marines.”

bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com

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