Foil: 6 Panel: Distinguished Flying Cross Society Column: 1 Line: 14

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:

In the late morning of 22 March 1971, during the withdrawal phase of OPERATION LAM SON 719, LtCol Darron was flying as an observer in the back seat of a US Army Ol-E BIRD DOG on a low-level reconnaissance mission over Route 9 in Laos, when he saw a number of dust plumes about five miles to the west. He directed the pilot to fly over the as yet unidentified vehicles for a closer look. Darron and the pilot discovered that the dust plumes were being generated by a group of North Vietnamese armored vehicles, which they identified as T-54 medium tanks, heading toward the South Vietnam border and the Khe Sanh Combat Base further east. LtCol Darron called the Airborne Command and Control Center (ABCCC) for a Forward Air Controller (FAC) who arrived on the scene about 20 minutes later in an Air Force OV-10 BRONCO. In the meantime, the Army Ol-E pilot, at LtCol Darron's direction, made several "runs" on the tanks to hold them in place. LtCol Darron assisted the FAC in locating the target and marking it with smoke grenades. When sets of strike aircraft began to arrive, LtCol Darron assisted the strike pilots by notifying them of ground fire from the tanks and informing them of the results of their strikes. LtCol Darron also directed long-range artillery fire against the tanks, but the target was beyond effective range of the 175mm guns being employed. The official results of the multiple air strikes were three of the NVA tanks destroyed and one USAF F-100 shot down. The pilot of the US Army Ol-E was immediately awarded the Silver Star Medal and LtCol Darron was recommended for the Distinguished Flying Cross. This decoration was awarded to him by the Commandant of the Marine Corps in April 1974.

At the time of this action, LtCol Darron, an infantry officer temporarily assigned to the Forward Headquarters of the US Army's XXIV Corps, was not on flight orders and was not a designated air crew member.