COSTA MESA : Daughter’s Fight for Top Medal

The battles ended for Jeanette Chervony’s father when he was killed by enemy fire in Vietnam in 1968. But the fight to recognize his bravery in the line of duty continues.

Not that the heroism of Sgt. Eddie E. Chervony hasn’t been recognized. Killed near Khe Sahn after serving in the Army for just eight months, he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star for his acts of bravery. Letters to the family that accompanied the medals detailed the last moments of his life, when he ran the length of a football field to rescue a wounded soldier and carry him to safety. He went back for four other comrades in arms, all while being fired upon by the Viet Cong.

The honors continued when Jeanette Chervony, a 24-year-old community service officer with the Costa Mesa Police Department who was just 13 months old when her father was killed, learned from members of Sgt. Chervony’s unit that a federal building in Ft. Knox, Ky., has been named Chervony Hall in his memory.

Now, Chervony and members of U.S. Army Battery A, 1st Battalion, 77th Artillery--who worked to get the Ft. Knox building named for Sgt. Chervony without his family’s knowledge--have launched a campaign aimed at getting the slain soldier the nation’s top medal--the Medal of Honor.

“I almost feel that it’s not just for my dad, but for the guys in his unit,” she said.

Though just an infant when the fatal bullet struck down her father, Chervony said she has become close to members of his unit through reunions and tales they have told her of Sgt. Chervony’s exploits.

“They had been heavily attacked by the enemy. It had been occurring for several hours,” Chervony said. “There were injured men in the front lines . . . and he ran (there) and kept the enemy at bay. There were five men that he brought back. I don’t know if they’re alive or dead.”

“Everything I learned about him was from the guys (in his unit), not from my mother,” she added. “I always thought that I knew my dad, but then I meet these men who remember what happened 23 years ago like it was yesterday and they remember him. They say, ‘No, I’ve never forgotten him.’ ”

Looking over pictures and her father’s medals, Chervony thumbed through letters written to her from some of those men. One veteran said he remembered that he was with her father when he received a birthday card with her picture inside.

“I’m thinking he must have gotten that (card) just before he died because it was three days before his 21st birthday when he was killed,” Chervony said.

Finding out more about her father and working toward getting him the Medal of Honor have become almost full-time jobs for Chervony. And while some may call it an obsession, Chervony said it is worth the time and trouble to learn about the man she knows only from yellowed photographs and honoring his memory.

“One thing that I can almost say triggered this was when I was in high school in government class and the teacher talked about ‘Nam,” she said. “The kids didn’t know anything and I didn’t know much, but it changed my life. I almost felt like standing up and saying, ‘Hey! This is important.’ ”