Former Resident to Finally Get Medal

Former Oxnard resident Alfred Rascon never thought much about it.

He fought. He was wounded. The Army sent him some baffling paperwork 30 years ago. And he just shrugged it off.

But when his buddies from the 173rd Airborne Brigade found out the truth--that Rascon had been nominated but never received the Medal of Honor--they did what any loyal friends would do.

They set out to correct the problem. Six years and all sorts of complications later, Rascon, 53, will receive the medal that is his due.

On Tuesday, Rascon will go from his Maryland home to the White House, where he will meet with President Clinton, receive his award and be inducted to the Hall of Heroes.

Reached Thursday at his home, Rascon, an inspector general for the U.S. Selective Service, was modest and unassuming. “I’m a pretty quiet type guy,” he said. “The medal isn’t really for me. It belongs to the people who were with me. It’s really an honor that they think I’m that special.”

Rascon was born in Mexico and moved to Oxnard with his family when he was a child. The family settled in La Colonia, but he left when he joined the Army at age 17.

His platoon was the first to arrive in Vietnam and stayed in continuous combat longer than any other, he said. When he left, he said, his paperwork must have been overlooked or confused with someone else’s.

Rascon came back to Southern California for a few years after the war, went to a community college and rejoined the Army in 1969.

Throughout his career in the service, he said, he didn’t think much about the lack of a medal. “This is something that happened in 1966,” he said. “This is all due to the people I was with and their tenacity.”