Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. Etchberger was among 12 U.S. airmen killed March 11, 1968, when a North Vietnamese Army special forces team scaled a 3,000-foot cliff and attacked their secret radar camp. Etchberger helped rescue three of his comrades, two of whom were severely wounded, and made it safely aboard an evacuation helicopter himself before being shot through the floor as it lifted off from the mountain, where he helped lead a team that aided the U.S. bombing campaign of North Vietnam.
This past Saturday, in conjunction with the Bringing War Home roadshow at the USU Moab campus, we talked with Rich Etchberger, USU Vice Provost and USU Interim Vice President for Statewide Campuses, who joined us to discuss his father's legacy and receiving the Medal of Honor on his behalf.
Utah Public Radio is partnering for the Bringing War Home Project with the USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences’ Mountain West Center for Regional Studies, the USU History Department and the USU Museum of Anthropology. This project is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Dialogues on the Experience of War program. Broadcasts of Bringing War Home on Utah Public Radio are supported by Utah Humanities.
