Thirty-three years after the bravest act of his life, Alfred V. Rascon might finally get the recognition many feel he deserves.

Legislation moving through Congress would allow the Vietnam War veteran, a resident of North Laurel in Howard County, to receive a Medal of Honor later this year for running into enemy fire and saving many of his fellow platoon members from certain death.

It is a scene that has replayed in his head almost every day for more than half his life: the dead soldiers, the sound of machine guns, the blood, the pain. And the urge to walk into the line of fire not once but three or four times to save his fellow soldiers.

The night after the battle, some of Rascon's comrades nominated him for the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award. But somehow -- nobody quite knows how -- the nomination fell through the cracks. Instead, Rascon received a Silver Star, the third-highest award for valor but one his fellow soldiers felt was inadequate.

When his platoon members found out several years ago that he had never received the Medal of Honor, they got to work. They eventually got the attention of a congressman, several senators, the secretary of the Army and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Soon, their efforts may pay off. Thursday, the Senate passed a bill that would allow Rascon to receive the medal. The House will likely pass a bill in the next 10 days or so; if it does, congressional officials say, President Clinton will likely sign it into law.

And then Rascon would not only receive the Medal of Honor, but reunite with his war comrades for the first time in more than three decades.

His reaction? A little bit of aw-shucks, a little bit of pleasure, and a little bit of fear that, at the ceremony, he might break down and cry.

"I've never been a hero, nor will I ever be a hero," he said. "I was just doing my job that day."

Rascon, 53, was born in Mexico and raised in Oxnard, Calif., in a working-class neighborhood. His parents, immigrants with no more than a second-grade education, both worked in packing houses, he said.

At age 17, he pressured his mother to let him enlist in the Army. After completion of airborne school, he was assigned as a medic to a battalion that ended up in Vietnam. His platoon members called him "Doc."

When he arrived in Vietnam in 1965, he was not even an American citizen; that occurred after the war. But he said that never mattered to him: "The fact is, this country has always been mine in my heart," he said.

A heady assignment

Nevertheless, it was a heady assignment for a 19-year-old, little more than a boy, to serve as medic in a reconnaissance platoon of 30 to 50 men.

"You basically are the savior of whoever you are with, and they depend on you and that's an emotional load to carry," he said. "You end up being the guardian angel of whoever."

On March 16, 1966, North Vietnamese soldiers ambushed Rascon and his platoon as they were walking down a well-used trail in the jungle northwest of Saigon.

When an American machine-gunner went down, Rascon, then 20, ignored orders to stay under cover in the jungle. He jumped onto the trail, amid an onslaught of enemy fire, to help the fallen soldier.

Although he was shot in the hip, Rascon dragged the solder off the trail, only to discover that he was dead.

Then he saw the soldier's M-60 machine gun lying on the trail. He again ran out into enemy fire and grenades to retrieve the gun and 400 rounds of ammunition.

Repeated efforts

Eyewitnesses say this act alone saved the platoon. Had the North Vietnamese gotten hold of the gun, they say, they could all easily have died.

But Rascon didn't stop there, even when a grenade fell near him and ripped open his face.

When he saw other grenades land near one of his platoon members, Neil Haffey, he tackled Haffey,shielding him. Then he ran back to some other wounded soldiers to provide medical aid.

When he saw still more grenades land near his squad leader, Sgt. Ray Compton, he dove on top of him.

Refuses morphine

Again he got up to aid his friends, refusing offers of morphine for his wounds.

"Boy, I'll tell you, he was shot to hell himself," said Master Sgt. Larry M. Gibson of University Place, Wash., a scout and machine-gunner in the platoon who works full-time for the Washington State National Guard. "And how he managed to do that is anybody's guess. It was an extreme effort on his part, very heroic, very gallant. I saw nothing braver."

Gibson said none of it surprised him: "Rascon was the medic," he said. "We were his boys, his troops, and he was going to care for us come hell or high water."

A war photographer, Tim Page, captured a picture of Rascon walking off the battlefield that day; he is drenched in sweat and blood and held up by a soldier on either side because he could not walk.

No visible scars

Today, Rascon bears no visible trace of the battle. He does not limp; he does not have any scars where the grenade blew his face open, although he said he carries shrapnel in his jaw. Nor does he seem to have emotional scars; he has held steady jobs for most of his adult life, most recently as inspector general for the Selective Service System in Arlington, Va.

Although he would be pleased to get the Medal of Honor, Rascon said that he is not lobbying on his own behalf and does not consider himself a hero.

Eyewitnesses disagree.

"There was a standard there for medics," Gibson said. "It was the norm for them to go forward, that was expected of them, but to do what Rascon did, and on top of that with his wounds, he exceeded expectations."

Haffey said that Rascon was one of the few medics who carried a gun, and the other soldiers appreciated that.

"We didn't like going out without him," said Haffey, a fire captain in New Jersey. "He was an airborne ranger in his heart."

Nominated for medal

The night after the battle, some of Rascon's platoon members nominated him for the Medal of Honor.

"I actually think that the men who recommended him were not very aggressive in making that story known," said Roy S. Lombardo, Jr., who served in the same unit as Rascon. He said that many of the witnesses to the action were hospitalized and did not have access to writing materials and could not press the case.

When his friends heard several years ago that he had never received the Medal of Honor, they began to lobby on his behalf. In 1994, the matter reached Rick Weidman, director of government relations for Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc. in Washington.

Story made public

In 1995, the organization published a story about Rascon in its newsletter. It caught the attention of Rep. Lane Evans of Illinois,a Vietnam veteran and ranking Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

The Vietnam Veterans group brought the matter to the attention of Republican Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, then chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Spencer Abraham, a Michigan Republican and chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, that would allow Rascon to receive the Medal of Honor.

A summary of the bill states that the secretary of the Army and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend that Rascon be awarded the medal. It would waive a federal law that the Medal of Honor be awarded within three years of the date upon which the award is based and give the president authority to award Rascon the medal.

The bill passed the Senate on Thursday night, and Steve Vetzner, a spokesman for Evans, said it will likely pass the House in less than two weeks.

Almost a done deal

"Essentially, it has been approved," Vetzner said. "The legislation is the formality." Bill Crandell, a spokesman for the Veterans Affairs Committee, agreed that it is almost a done deal.

"They didn't get it signed before the recess," he said. "Because of that, we're a couple of weeks away from getting it signed by the president." He said he "hadn't had any suggestion" that Clinton wouldn't sign.

John DeCrosta, a spokesman for Thurmond, said it is his understanding that Clinton plans to sign the bill.

No bitterness

Rascon said he has never felt bitterness about Vietnam and about not receiving the Medal of Honor 33 years ago. After receiving an honorable discharge and recuperating, he rejoined the Army, training to become a second lieutenant in the infantry. He returned to Vietnam, ultimately serving six more years in the military.

He is pleased -- if a little apprehensive -- that the country's highest miliary award might soon be his, even if he was just doing his duty.

"When the you-know-what hit the fan, you went out and did your job," he said. "In Vietnam, you had to be with your people and that's all there is to it."

Sun staff writer Christian Ewell contributed to this article.

Pub Date: 5/29/99