Here is the letter that started the chain so Fred could get his medals.Several others followed.. But it can be done.
Salute
BT
"To whom it may concern.
During my second combat tour in the Vietnam War I was assigned as a section leader in the Service Platoon of A company 5th Transportation Battalion, 101st Airborne Division stationed at Camp Eagle, Hue, Republic of Vietnam from October 1969 to October 1970. My duties included Battalion Instructor Pilot, Division Instructor pilot and officer in charge of the Division Test Pilot course, Unit test pilot and one of the Support Brigade Aircraft recovery pilots. Each of these duties required flight operations and many operations were over hostile territory.
During my second tour I earned 6 Air Medals for flight operations. The criteria for award of the Air Medal in effect at the time were as follows.
First category: One air Medal for Each 25 hours of “Combat Assault” flying time. logged in the log books as “CA”. Combat Assault flying time was logged for flights in which you received hostile fire or were inserting troops into unsecured landing zones in an effort to contact the enemy.
Second Category: One Air Medal for each 50 flying hours of “Direct Combat Support” flying time, logged in the log books as ‘DCS”. Direct Combat Support was logged on those missions in which the crew was providing direct support by flying supplies or personnel into, Or performing aircraft maintenance and recovery operations from small landing zones in close proximity to the enemy. Usually these recovered aircraft had been damaged by enemy fire and were in close proximity to hostile positions but no fire was received by the recovery crew.
Third Category: One Air Medal for each 100 flying hours of “ Other Combat Support” which was logged as “OCS”. Other Combat Support consisted of Administrative flights such as flights to other parts of the country to pick up parts, ferry personnel and supplies between major bases, Training and so forth.
During my tour, my unit “A” company had one aircraft assigned, A UH-1H Helicopter assigned for use in performing administrative, training, recovery and other flights. Since we were an aircraft maintenance company, our duties were to provide heavy maintenance, combat repairs, and test fly the aircraft of the division to insure they were safe for return to the owning unit.
During my tour the Crew Chief/ Flight Engineer/ Door Gunner on the company Helicopter was Fred C. Janssen. Recently we rediscovered each other through a veteran’s organization and were discussing our combat tour. During the discussions I discovered that Fred had not received a single Air Medal for his tour of duty even though his flying hours well exceeded any requirement in effect at the time.
As I stated earlier, I earned 6 Air Medals during that tour and much of my time was spent flying with Fred conducting aircraft recoveries, sometimes under fire, providing unit training to other pilots, and conducting administrative flights from Hue to Da Nang, Marble Mountain and other major bases, sometimes in appalling weather conditions. During this time we also provided a mail/ personnel shuttle of navy personnel stationed on a landing craft support ship stationed at the mouth of the perfume river. Landing on this small craft was a very demanding mission.
In addition to myself, there were several other pilots assigned to A Company who flew the company aircraft with Fred. In my opinion, Fred was flying about every day of his tour.
I have in my possession some flight records which indicate that Fred flew well over 140 hours during his tour, including CA and DCS time and those records are for just a part of his tour. Using the most stringent criteria of the time, (100 OCS flight hours), Fred earned the Air Medal for meritorious service. I think an injustice was done to Fred, mostly likely caused by poor records keeping by the personnel section of “A” company under the stress of high tempo combat operations.
I recommend this injustice be corrected as soon as possible and that Fred receive the “The Air Medal” for meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight, for the period of his tour with myself and A company, 5th transportation Battalion, 101st Airborne Division in the Republic of Vietnam. It is time he receives the recognition that he deserves for his service as a flight crewman in Vietnam.

Robert R. Taylor
Chief Warrant Officer 3 (Retired)
U.S. Army"