Jon Cavaiani

Col Valersky was a captain with Recon Company for four months, At the end of May 71, he was informed that they had a "good deal" for him, he was being reassigned to "Security Company" as the Executive Officer and due to his background as an Engineer Officer he was to go to Hill 950 immediately to fortify it because of an imminent attack. Upon arriving on Hickory on Jun 1, he began assessing the situation and briefing the Americans and talking to a company element that had just been in the valley. During the period before the attack, all that could be done was to fill sandbags to fortify the wall facing Hill 1015, which Col Valersky stated was almost useless as there was not enough time to complete the fortification when the attacks started.

Col Valersky relates during the initial attacks he was wounded He had received a report form Cavaiani or Jones that there were 14 wounded, based on this and the evaluation of the situation, he ordered a complete evacuation of Hill 950. He relates the day before the attack, he was totally exhausted as he had not had much sleep or rest since he got to Hickory and went to sleep in the commo bunker. He says he remembers Jon Cavaiani telling him not to do it as there was something that could be poisonous in the bunker. The evacuation commander ordered the wounded to be evacuated first.

Note: Two helicopters were sent to evacuate Hill 950, the first chopper named Curious Yellow was to take out the wounded, however, it suffered a hit and was damaged and fell of the top of Hickory with wounded, including Cpt Valersky. Some how the pilot was able to regain control and landed the chopper on the old Combat airstrip known as Khe Sahn. The second helicopter named "My Brother's Keeper" followed Curious Yellow and landed and transferred all the wounded and crew from Curious Yellow; thus, the remaining men on Hickory were not evacuated at this time.

During the period of his recovery at TF1AE, based on his own observations of the actions of Jon Cavaiani during the attacks before he was evacuated, he considered long an hard to determine what the actions of Jon Cavaiani merited. He states he had a lot of time and his evaluations of the actions of others who had been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, his own observations, and his own debriefings of others that remained on Hickory with Cavaiani but evacuated just before the hill was completely overrun and he reached the conclusions based on the facts at the time that Cavaiani's actions merited the Medal of Honor. Col Valersky stated he therefore wrote and submitted Cavaiani for the award. He says he was not influenced by anyone in higher command, he did so not out of guilt, but on the known actions of Cavaiani. Col Valersky further stated that based upon his knowledge at the time, he though Jon Cavaiani and John Jones were killed in action, but he says regardless of that fact, even if he knew Jon had survived, he would have submitted Jon for the Congressional Medal of Honor and the fact that Jon was presumed KIA had no influence on his recommendation and that there has been nothing during the past 38 years that has changed his mind and Jon certainly deserves the Congressional Medal of Honor.

I also spoke to Lt George Holland (Nov 14, 2009) who was the Artillery FO on Hickory and was also wounded and evacuated with Col Valersky, he stated that he has nothing but the highest praise for Cavaiani's actions during the period he was there before being wounded.