MIAMISBURG — The family of a fallen American hero from Miamisburg got special recognition during his high school reunion Friday.
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News Center 7′s John Bedell first reported on U.S. Army Sgt. Gary Lee McKiddy last week when Ohio’s U.S. Senators talked about a bill they introduced that would eliminate a now-expired time limit for when Medal of Honor applications had to be submitted for him.
On Friday, U.S. Army veteran Jim Skaggs told Bedell how he’ll never forget the day in Vietnam when he met McKiddy, his best friend in the military. They each enlisted in the Army during the Vietnam War.
“He said, ‘Hey, my name’s Gary McKiddy,’ threw out his hand, big smile on his face, and said, ‘Hey, I play guitar, too.’ And we just hit it off right off the bat,” Skaggs said.
Skaggs now visits his best friend once a year, every May 6, at McKiddy’s grave in Miamisburg, and puts down flowers.
“I’ve been doing that for all these years,” Skaggs said.
Skaggs and McKiddy flew combat missions together in Vietnam for months. Skaggs was a co-pilot and McKiddy was a door gunner. Then came a mission on May 6, 1970, where their helicopter was shot down. McKiddy dragged Skaggs to safety and then went back to rescue the pilot, but the burning helicopter exploded, killing them both.
“They got me onto the stretcher, they started hoisting me out of the jungle, but I remember I was just blubbering crying that I’d lost my crew,” Skaggs recalled. “Because, you know, part of the soldier’s pact is you don’t leave. You don’t leave anybody alone. You don’t leave them and I felt like I had let them down.”
McKiddy was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. For more than 50 years, his family and Skaggs have been working to get it upgraded to the Medal of Honor.
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“We’ve adopted Jim as our family. He’s our older brother,” Rick McKiddy, Gary’s brother, said.
The McKiddy family and Skaggs have known for years that Sgt. Gary Lee McKiddy went above and beyond the call of duty.
“Without Jim, there is no story, there’s no legacy,” Rick said.
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Still, the family said that formal recognition would fulfill a decades-long quest to honor their brother in return.
“It would be a validation for us all for him to receive that, for him and for his family. It would also, I think, breed hope in those who are still fighting for their loved one to receive the medal and to not give up hope, but to be an advocate,” Skaggs said. “And that’s what anybody who’s pursuing something of this stature needs is to have hope and to just keep at it and not give up.”