With Gratitude

The process of documenting a Presidential Unit Citation award can only be accomplished through a large team effort. No amount of thanks is sufficient to properly acknowledge the painstaking efforts of so many who were crucial to the process. But some contributors must be recognized.

Numerous senior, mostly general Army officers were instrumental to the success of the effort through their participation on a Volunteer Review Board that evaluated the merits of the PUC documentation. These included:

• The Honorable Thomas E. White, former Secretary of the Army and today Honorary Colonel of the Regiment, and earlier in his career a serving officer with the Regiment in Vietnam;

• General Donn A. Starry, (ret.), Regimental Commander of the 11th Cavalry at the time of the battle; Gen. Starry is a four-star general officer and previously was Honorary Colonel of the Regiment;

• Major General Michael Conrad, Battalion Commander, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), the unit to which Alpha Troop, Alpha Company and Charlie Company reported during the anonymous battle; and,

• Brigadier General John C. Bahnsen (ret.), Squadron Commander of the First Squadron, 11th Cavalry (Alpha Troop’s squadron), until four months prior to the anonymous battle.

Twenty-nine veterans graciously — and painfully, in some cases — took the time to write their personal accounts of March 25–26, in support of the PUC award.

The volunteers who manage the 11th Armored Cavalry Veterans of Vietnam and Cambodia (the veterans’ organization representing former 11th Cavalry troopers) fulfilled the tedious task of identifying A Troop veterans, researching material in the National Archives and elsewhere, and acting as a focal point of coordination for the documentation team.

And, several elected officials, including U.S. Senate and House members, submitted personal letters to the President of the United States encouraging his presence at the Alpha Troop PUC presentation ceremony in Washington in the fall of 2009.

We veterans are immensely grateful to our comrades and the many others who have done so much to recognize us after so many years.