A Year-End Review: Tying Up Some of the Loose Ends From ’84 : The Battle Continues

Thirty years after the Korean War, former Army Capt. Dave Carlisle of Los Angeles began fighting for ex-Lt. Col. Charlie Bussey of Bakersfield.

Both officers served in Korea with the 77th Engineer Combat Company, 25th Infantry Division, an all-black unit.

In July, 1950, Bussey said, he led a three-man machine-gun assault on advancing North Korean infantrymen and killed 258 of the enemy. For the action, he said, he was recommended for a Medal of Honor. Yet, he claims, his regimental commander, a white colonel who died in 1977, squashed the recommendation and reduced the decoration to a Silver Star because Bussey is black.

Bussey, who recently retired as an engineer with Bechtel Corp. in Saudi Arabia, hasn’t been dwelling on the incident. It surfaced only as a conversational aside three years ago when Bussey, now 64, was discussing his combat experiences with friend Carlisle.

And Carlisle, ex-journalist, management consultant and a devotee of black military history, jumped on the apparent slur.

His campaign for a delayed Medal of Honor for Bussey, which was reported on last January, has covered the Carter and Reagan Administrations. He has located witnesses to Bussey’s bravery and had a dozen leads frustrated by bad memories and death. Carlisle has found the company’s former first sergeant who says he remembers typing the original recommendation for Bussey’s decoration.

The army’s military awards branch, however, has searched ancient company, battalion and personnel records and can find no evidence that Bussey was once recommended for a Medal of Honor.

Without that, there is neither starting point nor substance to Carlisle’s assertion that his friend is a hero.

Yet that hasn’t stopped Carlisle.

He continues to root for evidence among Korean veterans while massing support from any person or any body of influence. The Los Angeles City Council has passed a resolution urging “appropriate honors” for Bussey. Gov. Deukmejian is to be approached. Last month, more letters went to Secretary of the Army John Marsh and Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego.)

“The fight ends when somebody confirms what the first sergeant says,” Carlisle vowed. “The fight ends when Charlie Bussey is awarded his Medal of Honor.”