President honors Farmington veteran - Dush and his unit distinguish themselves in 'The Anonymous Battle' - By R.JEAN - Daily Journal, Park Hills, MO. / Nov. 11, 2009. A soldier stands his ground. The temperature is above 100 degrees and he is wet with sweat from fear and exertion. It drips into his eyes. The soldier stands his ground. The air is thick with the stench of chlordite and urine. The volleys of gunfire are deafening, and he can see the enemy pointing a gun at him. The soldier stands his ground. He's the only one left on the unit track with a weapon to fire, and he's burned out two guns already. Shots fly over his head, the hair on his head moves, and shrapnel flies into his face. And still, the soldier stands his ground. Where do we find such men? We find one of them in Farmington, Missouri. His name is Don Dush, but he would be the last person to describe himself as a hero. Dush was among 86 veterans who gathered at the White House Rose Garden recently to receive the Presidential Unit Citation for Alpha Troop, First Squadron, 11th Armored Calvary Regiment. The unit distinguished itself during the Vietnam War by rescuing another unit outnumbered nearly four to one by enemy troops. The battle never had a proper name and has come to be known as The Anonymous Battle. It didn't change the outcome of the conflict, but Captain John Poindexter wrote a book about the fight and pursued formal recognition for the efforts of his men. President Barack Obama called the honor overdue. "I cannot imagine a more fitting tribute to these men, who fought in what came to be called The Anonymous Battle," Obama said. "Troopers, you are not anonymous any more." It may not have had a name, but still deserves recognition, Obama added. "It never had a name, like Tet or Hue or Khe Sanh," the President said. "It never made the papers back home. But like countless battles, known and unknown, it is a proud chapter in the story of the American soldier." The President called it an obligation to honor those who answered the country's call and served with honor. "One of the saddest episodes in American history was the fact that these vets were often shunned and neglected, even demonized when they came home. That was a national disgrace. And on days such as this, we resolve never to let it happen again." The Anonymous Battle took place in the dog's head of Cambodia in March of 1970. "We could hear the radio traffic, talking about how they needed ammunition, water, that they had wounded and dead and that the situation was such that because of where they were they couldn't be extracted by air and couldn't be reached on foot by anyone there," Dush said. "They couldn't be resupplied because they were too close to the enemy. They did receive a lot of artillery and air support, used more for a blocking fire to keep the enemy from retreating back into Cambodia." The unit was fighting trained regulars of the North Vietnamese Army, with heavy artillery, and well-entrenched in a bunker complex. They surrounded the American forces by sheer force of numbers. "As the day wore on, it was evident they were in a lot of trouble," Dush said. "They hadn't done anything wrong, they were just overpowered. If we didn't get to them, all 100 would be killed or captured." The besieged unit was about four kilometers away in triple canopy jungle. Impossible to navigate quickly or quietly. They used tanks to push the jungle over, making nine thousand times nine kinds of noise and expecting an ambush every tree forward. It took an hour. "As we traveled through there, one of the things that occurred to me is that these storm chasers that chase tornadoes, they run to the storm. It seemed surreal and very strange to be purposely driving into that maelstrom," Dush said. As they neared the fighting, soldiers pulled out extra cans of ammunition, drank more water, pulled more hand grenades up, tightened up flak jackets. There had been a lot of noise heading into the battle. Gunfire going off, choppers overhead, gun ships coming in. But when they finally got to the battle scene, the firing stopped and all was strangely quiet. "We popped a smoke grenade directly in our track and these guys stood up from the bushes," Dush said. "We were on top of them. They were ecstatic to see us." Captain Poindexter had placed his troop between the entrapped company and the North Vietnamese Army, shielding them. After the smoke grenade went off, Poindexter gave the order to fire, covering the unit as they loaded people onto the tracks. As soon as they stopped firing, the Vietnamese soldiers started firing back, and the real fighting began. Dush could see his enemies pointing their guns at him. "You could see their faces peering out of the bunker, too," Dush said. "They tried to hurt us, they tried to kill us, they tried to catch us. They did everything they could." It was a two-hour fight on a hot tropical night with temperatures above 100 degrees. Soldiers were wringing wet with exertion, fear and heat. You didn't dare stop firing for any reason, for fear of being overrun. Blasts of air pushed Dush back while he was on the track firing. He burned out two or three gun barrels. Finally, he was down to one that jammed every third shot. He would clear it as fast as he could and fire again. Then he was hit by some shrapnel. "I actually could see the shrapnel coming," he said. "Most of it hit the gun shield, but a little of it hit my lower face. It was like someone punched me." His face was so numb he couldn't feel it any more. He reached up to touch it, to be sure it was still there. "My hand came down with a lot of blood," he said. Certain he'd lost his lower jaw, he took a fast look at a mirror from his shaving kit. It was still there. He continued firing. "We wound up fighting those people for the better part of two hours," Dush said. "It got pretty desperate there for a while. We kept fighting and finally reached a point where we actually beat them back far enough and killed enough of the enemy to make them combat ineffective." They retreated at that point, the mission accomplished. "We had to go back out the way we came in," Dush explained. "There was no other way to do it. We felt we would be ambushed at any minute, but that didn't happen. It was all done under aerial flares." Dush doesn't see what he did personally as particularly heroic, though he was proud to stand with members of his unit to receive the Presidential Unit Citation. "We did this as a group," Dush said. "We decided as a group if we were interviewed we would want to say that we are very honored — and I'm very proud to be associated with that group of people — but we want this award to stand for all Vietnam Veterans. Those who are alive, those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, and those who may be over there still." Dush added he hopes people will treat the soldiers who return from Iraq and Afghanistan with more respect than the Vietnam Veterans received. "Coming home from an unpopular war as an unpopular soldier was kind of painful," Dush said. "If someone didn't know I was over there, I didn't bring it up, because someone in the group was invariably anti-war and I had people ask me how I could bring myself to kill women and children and stuff like that. "They say we lost the war, and there's a lot of argument about that, but we never lost a battle and as far as losing the war is concerned, they did sign a peace agreement, a cease fire. "I think what is important is that today we are involved in an unpopular war and it looks like it's going to get even more unpopular. I would just like people to realize we shouldn't make the soldiers who go (to war) carry the burden of that. Someone else once said — it's not my quote — that America should hate war, but love their warriors. I hope that is what people will do."