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“Recommendation for an impact award.”
An impact award meant decorating a soldier immediately for something he had just done rather than running it through the bureaucratic procedure, which could take weeks or even months. The actions of the individual and the circumstances had to be such that there was no question he had done something at great personal risk above and beyond the call of duty.
“Why are you showing this to me?” Naylor asked as he reached for the computer printout.
“I thought you might want to show it to General Schwarzkopf,” Colonel Wallace said. “This one’s going to make all the papers. An Apache pilot, a West Pointer, whose father won the Medal of Honor in Vietnam.”
Naylor read the computer printout.
PRIORITY
SECRET
0705 16 JANUARY 1991
FROM COMMANDING OFFICER 403RD AVIATION BATTALION
TO COMMANDER IN CHIEF
US CENTRAL COMMAND
ATTN: J-1
INFO: PUBLIC AFFAIRS
1. THE UNDERSIGNED STRONGLY RECOMMENDS THE IMPACT AWARD OF THE DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS AND THE PURPLE HEART MEDAL TO SECOND LIEUTENANT C. G. CASTILLO, SSN 245220136, AVIATION, 155TH ATTACK HELICOPTER COMPANY, WITH CITATION AS FOLLOWS:SECOND LIEUTENANT CASTILLO WAS FLYING AS COPILOT OF AN AH-64B ATTACK HELICOPTER IN THE OPENING HOURS OF OPERATION DESERT STORM. AFTER SUCCESSFULLY DESTROYING SEVERAL IRAQI RADAR INSTALLATIONS AND OTHER TARGETS, THE AIRCRAFT WAS STRUCK AND SEVERELY DAMAGED BY IRAQI ANTI-AIRCRAFT FIRE. THE PILOT WAS BLINDED, LIEUTENANT CASTILLO WAS WOUNDED, AND HIS WINDSCREEN WAS DESTROYED. LIEUTENANT CASTILLO TOOK THE CONTROLS OF THE AIRCRAFT AND DESPITE HIS PAINFUL WOUNDS AND THE LOSS OF ESSENTIALLY ALL COMMUNICATIONS AND NAVIGATION EQUIPMENT FLEW THE DAMAGED AIRCRAFT MORE THAN 100 MILES BACK TO HIS BASE.
2. SUBJECT OFFICER IS A 1990 GRADUATE OF THE US MILITARY ACADEMY. HIS NEXT OF KIN ARE HIS GRANDPARENTS, MR. AND MRS. JUAN FERNANDO CASTILLO, BOX 19, ROUTE 7, UVALDE, TEXAS. HIS FATHER, WOJG JORGE ALEJANDRO CASTILLO, WAS POSTHUMOUSLY AWARDED THE MEDAL OF HONOR AS A HELICOPTER PILOT IN VIETNAM. HIS MOTHER IS DECEASED.
3. PHOTOGRAPHS OF SUBJECT OFFICER AND THE BATTLE DAMAGED HELICOPTER WILL BE FORWARDED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
MARTIN C. SEWARD
LT COL, AVIATION
COMMANDING
Major General Naylor looked at Colonel Wallace and said, “How badly was this officer wounded? Do we know?”
“He can’t be too badly hurt, General, if he flew that shot-up Apache a hundred miles. I think they would have said something if he was seriously injured.”
Naylor snorted.
“You see what I mean, sir?” Colonel Wallace asked. “It’s a great story! The son of a Medal of Honor winner, and I think we can infer he’s a Tex-Mex, with all the implications of that. This will be on the front page of every newspaper in the country tomorrow.”
“No, it won’t,” General Naylor said.
“Sir?”
“Listen to me carefully, Colonel. I am placing an embargo on this story. It is not to be released, leaked, talked about, anything, unless and until General Schwarzkopf overrides my decision. Is that clear?”
“It’s clear, sir, but I don’t understand . . .”
“Good. We understand each other. That will be all, Colonel. Thank you.”
The office of Major General Oswald L. Young, the J-1 (Personnel) of Central Command, in the command bunker was almost identical to that of Major General Naylor, and the two were old friends.
“Got a minute for me, Oz?” Naylor asked.
