It took 42 years, but Al Herrera has his Silver Star at last

[n2doc]

By Mike Francis, The Oregonian
SALEM -- The Silver Star, the military's third-highest award, finally found its way to the chest of Beaverton's Al Herrera, 42 years after the actions that earned it.

Herrera was honored Monday afternoon in the office of Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, who said the ceremony would help "correct the historic record."

That record was written on a hillside in a rubber plantation in what is now Vietnam's Binh Phuoc Province, near the Cambodian border. It was August, 1969, during the early days of the Paris Peace Talks. To gain advantage in the talks, the North Vietnamese hoped to raise their flag above various provincial capitals, so they could hold their places during any cease-fire, remembers Phil Greenwell, who was captain of the mechanized infantry company in which Herrera served as first sergeant.

For Greenwell, a green, 22-year-old company commander who was rotated into the Charlie Company job, it was an enormous comfort to have an experienced, capable first sergeant like Herrera on whom to rely. On that day in August, Greenwell and Herrera were part of a procession of armored vehicles whose lead element suddenly ran into intense enemy fire -- more than the usual small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.

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http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonatwar/2011/11/it_took_42_years_but_al_herrer.html