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Friday, February 24, 1967, at approximately 1430 hours near Di Linh, in the Province of Lam Dong, South Vietnam, Captain Hilliard A. Wilbanks of the U.S. Air Force, Tactical Air Support Squadron, Nha Trang/Bao Lac AFB, Republic of South Vietnam, discovered a well concealed numerically superior Vietcong force, poised to ambush a smaller group of advancing South Vietnamese Rangers. Captain Wilbanks warned the Rangers of the ambush and called for additional air support and marked the hostiles with two white smoke rockets. In so doing, the hostile fire was redirected at Captain Wilbanks and his tiny Cessna O-1E Birdog reconnaissance aircraft. Realizing the critical situation the Rangers were in, and that air support was long in coming, Captain Wilbanks single handedly took on the Vietcong Battalion, and made many passes drawing fire away from the SV Rangers, allowing them to withdraw to safety. Captain Wilbanks continued his heroic intervention until he was mortally wounded and crashed in the tea field between the opposing forces. For conspicuous gallant action, Captain Wilbanks was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. May he be remembered with his other fallen comrades and rest in peace.
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