President Barack Obama will award a retired Army helicopter pilot the Medal of Honor next month for saving more than 40 soldiers during a battle in the Vietnam War, the White House announced Tuesday. On May 15, 1967, Lt. Col. Charles Kettles, who was a major at the time, led a platoon of UH-1D helicopters in support of the 1st Brigade of the the 101st Airborne Division, which was being ambushed by a battalion-sized force near Duc Pho, Republic of Vietnam, according to the White House release. After leading several evacuation runs under fire, Kettles returned without aerial support to rescue a squad-sized group of soldiers who were stranded and pinned down. He is credited with saving the lives of 40 soldiers and four of his own crew members that day. He left Vietnam in November 1967, but returned for a second tour between October 1969 and October 1970. He retired from the Army in 1978. Kettles, who is 86 years old, will receive the nation’s highest honor for valor in combat from President Obama on July 18.
The World War I Centennial Commission officially raised the flag at the new National World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C., with a unique salute to the early days of air power. During the April 16 ceremony, two F-22s from the 94th Fighter Squadron at Joint Base Langley, Va., performed…