Airman Killed in Laos to Get Medal of Honor 2010-09-04 Richard Etchberger died in Laos in 1968, saving fellow Americans at a top-secret radar station overrun by North Vietnamese commandos. He was nominated that year for the Medal of Honor. But there was a problem: The U.S. was not supposed to have troops in Laos. President Lyndon B. Johnson declined to award the medal. That was then.
