Medal of Honor Recipient David Dolby, 64; Post-Military Career Was Troubled

[douglas9]

August 14, 2010 12:00 AM

The Washington Post

David Dolby, who received the Medal of Honor for saving his Army platoon in Vietnam but had a troubled post-military career that included a conviction for cashing fraudulent checks, died Aug. 6 in Spirit Lake, Idaho. He lived in Royersford, Pa. He was 64.

His brother, Daniel Dolby, said Dolby had been visiting fellow Vietnam veterans in Idaho, but he did not know the cause of death.

David Dolby — "Mad Dog," as he was known to his Army comrades — was a solid 6-footer who wrestled and played football in high school. He enlisted in the Army at 18 and became an Army Ranger and a member of the Green Berets. He was known to scout the jungle ahead of the other men, toting his heavy M60 machine gun like a rifle.

On May 21, 1966, then-Spec. 4th Class Dolby was in the middle of his first tour in Vietnam. He was part of a 1st Cavalry Division platoon on a mission near An Khe when the men walked into an ambush.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100814/NEWS02/8140336/-1/NEWSMAP&template=printart

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Dolby

[douglas9]

1. The story of a real American hero

On Aug. 6, 2010, we lost a war hero, son, brother, husband, and Medal of Honor winner, David Dolby. Staff Sgt. Dolby served five tours in Vietnam, as an Army Ranger and a member of the Green Beret.

He served right out of high school, in 1966 prior to the troop build-up, and at the worst possible time. It was his custom to "walk point," (the most forward position) carrying an M60 machine gun (23.15 pounds) as if it were a squirrel gun. He saved numerous lives at great personal peril, risking his life to recover wounded comrades, wiping out three enemy machine gun posts, and killing, according to the Army's count, approximately 150 enemy combatants; only then to crawl within 55 yards of enemy bunkers, lobbing smoke grenades at the bunkers to provide visual targets for American air strikes. He really earned the Silver Star, three Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart.

That should have been the context of Dolby's obituary published in The Washington Post and republished in The Standard-Times, Aug. 14, 2010. Now if you are expecting that Dolby went on to become a member of the Senate, or that he wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, or was recruited by some governmental agency, you had better stop reading now. Dolby died the other day, just another kid from Pennsylvania who went and served his country. Instead of an obituary that led with all his accomplishments, the story announced and ended highlighting a person convicted of fraud in 1974, 36 years ago.

He was hoping to return to Pennsylvania and begin a new life — just the regular life that every American is entitled to — with a job, a house, a family and some retirement later on. But what was omitted, and what polity would have history rewrite was that at the height of the Vietnam War, protests were rampant and politics sizzled. There was no ticker tape parade for Dolby and his fellow heroes. No key to the city. No job offers.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100823/OPINION/8230318

[Joe Chi Minh]

2. Greater love hath no man... but... but... property is more sacred....