McKiddy was flying in a helicopter as an observer that fateful day. He gave his roommate and best friend, Jim Skaggs, a chance to fill the gunner’s position.
When the helicopter was shot down, McKiddy was probably thrown free of the crash, perhaps not even badly injured. But McKiddy climbed back into the burning aircraft to save his friends.
He managed to get Skaggs out and went back in for the pilot.
That’s when either fuel or ammunition exploded, killing him.
It was certainly an act worthy of the Medal of Honor, according to his family.
“The first time, everybody said there was a statutory limitation,” Rick McKiddy said.
“Then, the next time they looked at it, they basically said there was no eye witness.”
Skaggs remembers the crash and even the windshield crashing in on him. “And then he blacked out,” Rick McKiddy said.
When Skaggs regained consciousness, he was clear of the helicopter. Who but McKiddy could have accomplished the task?
Not long after, McKiddy was posthumously awarded the Army’s Silver Star. Skaggs attended the ceremony.
“He checked himself out of the hospital in order to come,” said Rick McKiddy. Skaggs was in a body suit and had a crushed leg.
“He wanted to know where the Medal of Honor was,” Rick McKiddy said.
There have been times during the years where the McKiddys’ thought the Medal of Honor would be awarded to their brother. Bills were introduced into Congress, numerous sponsors came and went and each time the bill languished.
In 1984, Tony Hall got involved.
He pressed for a change in the statutory limitation on honorees. In 1998, the Defense budget awarded a few Tuskegee Airman with the Medal of Honor for their WWII actions.
As late as 2008, other bills were introduced ... and died.
“It went into one of those holes that it never came out of,” Rick McKiddy said. “The last Congress, no bill was introduced.”
But neither Rick, 53, of Miamisburg, nor his brother, Ron, 56, now of Fairfield, will give up.
Ron McKiddy mostly remembers his brother’s sense of humor. “Gary had an ability to walk into a room and have everybody laughing,” he said.
Rick McKiddy remembers his brother volunteering for service.
“When he got done with infantry training, he got orders for Alaska. And he went in and got those changed to go to Vietnam.”
Now, all these years later, the McKiddys — including Gary’s father, Edgar, and mother, Betty — would like to see Gary receive the recognition they think he deserves.
Randy Zahn in his book “Snake Pilot” writes, “Had Jim Skaggs been conscious or had anybody else witnessed Gary’s act of heroism, he no doubt would have received the Medal of Honor.”
“The fact that he didn’t is another tragedy of war.”
Contact this columnist at (937) 696-2080 or williamgschmidt@ frontier.com.
About the Author