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Miamisburg man entered into Silver Star Book of Valor

Darrell Pearson earns medals in Vietnam for saving unit

Staff photo by Jim Noelker Boyd "Darrell" Pearson, of Miamisburg has been inducted into the Military Museum at Fort Campbell Kentucky. Pearson served in Vietnam for 12 months in 1969, where he was injured. He received a Purple Heart and Silver Star along with three other combat awards.

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Staff photo by Jim Noelker Boyd "Darrell" Pearson, of Miamisburg has his combat awards displayed along side this famous photograph of the Vietnam War Memorial. Pearson has been inducted into the Military Museum at Fort Campbell Kentucky. Pearson served in Vietnam for 12 months in 1969, where he was injured. He received a Purple Heart and Silver Star along with three other combat awards.

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By Kristin McAllister, Staff Writer 1:39 PM Thursday, March 3, 2011

MIAMISBURG — Boyd “Darrell” Pearson does not like talking about what happened in Vietnam that earned him five military medals.

But the 62-year-old Miamisburg man is proud his actions saved the lives of each man in his unit under ambush in a jungle near Fire Support Base Veghel on May 5, 1970.

“I was a machine gunner,” said Pearson, who at the time was an Army Spc. 4th Class with the 101st Airborne Division — the Screaming Eagles — out of Fort Campbell, Ky.

On Feb. 18, Pearson learned he is being entered into the Silver Star Book of Valor to be housed in the Don F. Pratt Museum at the Kentucky base and in the headquarters of the 2nd Brigade, 501st and 502nd Infantry Regiments.

“I think this award will live forever,” Pearson said. “My other ones will die when I do. No slaps on the back. I just want to be dad.”

Army Chief Warrant Officer 2, Ryan Niebuhr, said the book is being created to “pay tribute and restore our history, from World War II to the present — to pass it on to not just our generation, but those to come.”

The Silver Star is the third-highest military decoration awarded for valor in the face of the enemy. Pearson received his Aug. 1, 1970.

“We want to honor those who did great things for our country,” Niebuhr said.

Pearson described the 1970 ambush as similar to a tornado.

“Shooting, bombing, no communication, you don’t know who’s next. It’s complete chaos,” he said.

“As the fighting went on, my guys, we were all pinned down.”

Leading his men through the attack, Pearson unloaded on the enemy.

“I fought back with my gun as long as I could and as I moved closer to the enemy position, it got too hot to shoot,” he said. “It then made a good club.”

Switching to his .45-caliber pistol and a pocketful of hand grenades, Pearson sustained his counter attack.

“I just kept at it until we conquered the enemy, then we moved through it,” he said. “No one died, but there were several injuries.”

Military leaders submitted Pearson’s actions for a Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor.

“It came back a Silver Star,” Pearson said.

He suffered injuries in 1969 and 1970 and still has shrapnel in his elbow. But you won’t get the details about how it got there.

“I don’t tell no war stories. It’s an uncomfortable period of time for me,” he said. “Family don’t even understand that time.”

Pearson also is recipient of a Purple Heart, Bronze Star, an Air Medal and a Combat Infantryman’s Badge. The Veterans Administration in 2003 granted him medical retirement.

After returning home, Pearson worked 36 years as a truck driver for Waste Management. He and his wife, Janette, met in 1980, married and had two children; Justin, 27, and Jessica, 33.

“I thank God for my dry bed every night,” he said, recalling lying on the ground in all sorts of conditions. “In the rain, in the mud, you’d get jungle rot and get to change your clothes once a month when they’d drop down from a rope from a helicopter and you’d send back up your old clothes.”

The memories are still raw.

“I’m very grateful for my life. I love life.”

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