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[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5939 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 5939
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to United States Marines who served
as part of helicopter support missions in the Vietnam War.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 7, 2025
Mr. Davis of North Carolina (for himself and Mr. Murphy) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial
Services
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to United States Marines who served
as part of helicopter support missions in the Vietnam War.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``USMC Helicopter Support in Vietnam
Congressional Gold Medal Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
(a) By the end of the war in Vietnam in 1975, there had been
approximately 391,000 U.S. Marines and 10,000 Navy Corpsmen who had
served in Vietnam. Out of all of these men it is estimated that roughly
90 percent of them served in either the First or Third Marine Division,
while the remaining 10 percent served in the First Marine Air Wing (1st
MAW).
(b) The 1st MAW itself consisted of both fixed-wing and helicopter
(rotary) Marine Air Groups (MAG), and over 60 percent of the Marines
and Corpsmen who served in the 1st MAW were assigned to the MAG.
(c) During Vietnam's 13 years of war the 1st MAW saw 25 of its
helicopter squadrons deployed to Vietnam, and by January 1968 there
would be 11 squadrons flying in the country on any given day until mid-
1971.
(d) The first Marine helicopter squadron to be deployed to Vietnam
was HMM-362 on April 15, 1962. Their mission in Vietnam was to both
advise and train, transport troops, passengers, and cargo, and to
provide aeromedical support to the troops of the Army of the Republic
of Vietnam (ARVN).
(e) 5 months later, at the request of the United States Military
Assistance Command in Vietnam, and with the Marines having much more
capable aircraft and instrument-qualified pilots in country, the
squadron that replaced HMM-362, HMM-163, was relocated to the airfield
in Da Nang. 21 days later, tragedy struck when one of their helicopters
flying on a medical support mission crashed into a mountainside due to
a mechanical problem, killing 7 of the 8 men aboard. The casualties
would include the first Navy Corpsman, first Navy Flight Surgeon, and
the first Marine aircrew members to die in Vietnam.
(f) 1 year later while flying on a search and rescue mission, 2
helicopters from yet another Marine Squadron, 0 HMM-361, collided in
mid-air while trying to avoid ground fire, killing 12 men. The
casualties in this mishap included the first Hispanic, and the first
African-American Corpsmen to die in Vietnam, as well as another Navy
Flight Surgeon and 9 Marines.
(g) In March of 1965, upon the orders of President Lyndon Johnson,
3,500 Marines of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade made an
amphibious landing on Red Beach, 9 miles north of Da Nang, making them
the first United States combat troops to be deployed to Vietnam. With
their arrival came the need for a much larger, and more diverse system
of helicopter support.
(h) By the time the last United States Marine ground troops were
pulled out of Vietnam, the number of Marines having served in the
country was estimated to be between 81,000 and 85,000. It was because
of who and what they were, that they were tasked with conducting both
large and small scale ground operations, search and destroy missions,
counterinsurgency operations in both rural and urban settings
throughout the 10,540 square-miles of what was known as the ICTZ, or
the I-Corps Tactical Zone.
(i) Comprised of the perhaps the 5 most hotly-contested provinces
in all of South Vietnam; Quang Tri, Thua Thien, Quang Nam, Quang Tin,
and Quang Ngai, the Marines often found themselves engaged with the
enemy in places whose names became synonymous with the horrors of the
war. These were places like Khe Sanh, Hill 881S, Mutter's Ridge, The
Rockpile, Dong Ha, Con Thien, A Shau Valley, Phu Bai, Hue, Marble
Mountains, Hill 55, the Que Son Mountains, LZ Baldy, LZ Ross, An Hoa,
Hoi An, Liberty Bridge, Chu Lai, and Go Noi Island.
(j) These became the very places where Marine helicopter aircrews
flew into, and always hoped that they would leave again. And not
fearing to do so, some of these places became the same places where the
Marines decided to establish some of their helicopter bases.
(k) From these bases the helicopter aircrews would support those on
the ground by flying large troop insertions or extractions, as well as
large civilian relocation. They also inserted or extracted small
reconnaissance teams, flew life-saving medical evacuations or
participated in search and rescue missions, delivered much needed
ammunition, food, water, medical supplies, or mail from home which to
those on the ground proved crucial because it impacted both their
morale and emotional well-being. Other missions flown were because
someone needed an overhead escort, aerial reconnaissance, target
spotting, a night time flare drop, or because a VIP needed to be flown
around.
(l) No matter what the mission was, or who it was for, or where it
was needed, there were always great risks involved. It might be from
the automatic weapons or small arms ground fire, mortars, rockets,
landmines in the landing zone, RPG's that the enemy used, or perhaps
because of something as simple as a barbed wire entanglement or a
triple canopy forest. Mountains, the weather, pilot error, a
mechanical, electrical, or fuel problem, basically you name it and it
could kill you. But the aircrews flew anyway.
(m) There was one mission flown by helicopters, however, that not
only carried these same risks, but was also known by intelligence and
the aircrew members themselves to be much more of a prize target to the
enemy, the Medevac.
(n) Flown by an exceptionally skilled, calm, decisive, dedicated,
compassionate and both physically and mentally resilient crew
consisting of a pilot and co-pilot, crew chief, two gunners, and a
skilled combat-trained Navy Corpsman, they were ready to fly anywhere
and anytime, 7 days a week. Of note is the fact that the corpsman and
gunners all volunteered to fly medevac missions.
(o) These medevac aircraft were normally accompanied by a ``chase''
ship (minus a corpsman) that shadowed them, and 2 gunship escorts that
would accompany them into what many aircrew members described as ``hell
and back''.
(p) This ``medevac package'' of 4 helicopters and their crews
demonstrated the foresight that the Marines had put into these packages
in that they were strategically located throughout the ICTZ and were
always ready to go. To have such a package on standby and already in
place when a mission was called was considered better than trying to
piecemeal one at the last minute, thus endangering the life of a
casualty. Bullets could kill, but so could a delay in launching.
(q) Medevac helicopters often flew into some of the most
formidable, dangerous, and hostile environments in all of Vietnam. And
as a result of where they went, and what they were doing, there would
be 26 Medevac Corpsmen who were killed in the line of duty.
(r) There were however, times when a medevac helicopter was not
readily available, which in time served as the impetus for creating a
plan where another nearby helicopter that was already tasked with
another type of mission would be re-tasked to conduct the much needed
evacuation instead. This was what the aircrews considered to be a
``flight of opportunity''.
(s) Those who were being evacuated were usually United States
Marines, South Korean Marines (ROKs) ARVN Troopers, or the occasional
Vietnamese civilian who was sick, wounded, or oftentimes deceased. Some
evacuees were carried on, while some walked on, and there were also
those who had to be hoisted up into the helicopter in a stretcher, or
on a jungle penetrator. In any case, because the pilots were always
aware of the ``golden hour'' they would often inform the corpsman in
the back how soon it would be until they would touch down.
(t) Depending on the circumstance of the evacuation, the evacuee or
evacuees would either be flown to the 700-bed Naval Support Activity
hospital in Da Nang, or to whichever United States Navy hospital ship
like the 750-bed Repose, or the 786-bed Sanctuary, either which was in
the Da Nang harbor at the time. Sometimes it was to either the 1st or
3rd Medical Battalion, or the civilian hospital in Da Nang. It is
difficult to forget that amongst all of the other missions that the
aircrew members flew, those were those missions that carried the bodies
of many of the 18,844 Marines and 645 Navy Corpsmen who lost their
lives in Vietnam. These missions would take them directly to Graves
Registration.
(u) The aircrews believed that those who were on the ground
expected helicopter support, that they needed helicopter support, and
because of this, they made sure that they received helicopter support.
(v) There was a saying that went that those who flew did so
``outside the wire'' while those who never flew stayed ``inside the
wire''. These were those young men, who in their own specialized way,
supported both those Marines who flew and those Marines who were out in
the bush.
(w) These were the forgotten heroes of the 1st MAW. They were the
men who maintained, serviced, and repaired the helicopters, fueled them
and armed them, worked in air traffic control, maintained the runway,
the hootches, the admin buildings, the clubs, cooked the meals, did the
paperwork, studied the intelligence, worked in base security, drove the
vehicles on and off base, and like the chaplains, prayed for everyone.
(x) By the end of the war, the Marines would lose 280 of their
helicopters and 845 of their helicopter crew members and passengers in
Vietnam. Not quantified anywhere, however, is the exact number of those
Marines on base who were killed and did not fly.
(y) The helicopter aircrews of the 1st MAW who flew in Vietnam
between 1962 and 1975 transported more than 3,210,000 troops and
passengers, flew more than 1,600,000 various sorties, delivered more
than 338,000 tons of cargo, and medically evacuated approximately
189,000 patients.
(z) But it was the former Commandant of the Marine Corps, General
Leonard F. Chapman, who best summarized what helicopter support meant
to the Marines on the ground in Vietnam when he stated that ``When a
Marine in Vietnam is wounded, surrounded, hungry, low on ammunition or
water, he looks to the sky, he knows the choppers are coming''.
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.
(a) Presentation Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of
Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make
appropriate arrangements for the presentation, on behalf of Congress,
of a single gold medal of appropriate design in honor of the Medevac
Marines and Navy Corpsmen of the Vietnam War, collectively, in
recognition of their heroic military service, which saved countless
lives and contributed directly to the defense of the United States.
(b) Design and Striking.--For purposes of the presentation referred
to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (referred to in
this Act as the ``Secretary'') shall strike a gold medal with suitable
emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary,
in consultation with the Secretary of Defense.
(c) United States Navy Medical Department Museum.--
(1) In general.--Following the award of the gold medal in
honor of the Medevac Marines and Navy Corpsmen of the Vietnam
War, the gold medal shall be given to the National Museum of
the United States Navy, where it will be available for display
as appropriate and available for research.
(2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
the National Museum of the United States Navy should make the
gold medal awarded pursuant to this Act available for display
elsewhere, particularly at appropriate locations associated
with the Vietnam War, and that preference should be given to
locations affiliated with the National Museum of the United
States Navy.
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.
The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold
medal struck under section 3, at a price sufficient to cover the costs
of the medals, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and
overhead expenses.
SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS.
(a) National Medal.--Medals struck pursuant to this Act are
national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States
Code.
(b) Numismatic Items.--For purposes of section 5134 and section
5136 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck under this Act
shall be considered to be numismatic items.
SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS, PROCEEDS OF SALE.
(a) Authority To Use Fund Amounts.--There is authorized to be
charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund such
amounts as may be necessary to pay for the costs thereof struck under
this Act.
(b) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of duplicate
bronze medals authorized under section 4 shall be deposited into the
United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
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