PEASE AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, N.H. -- Airmen from Pease Air National Guard Base, Newington, New Hampshire, gathered in an auditorium to hear from the biographer of Medal of Honor recipient Chief Master Sgt. Richard “Dick” Etchberger, June 10.
About 20 members from the New Hampshire ANG’s 157 Air Refueling Wing and its active-duty affiliate, the 64th Air Refueling Squadron, attended a lunch-time talk by Air Force Reserve Individual Mobilization Augmentee Chief Master Sgt. Matt Proietti.
The speaker, who is a career public affairs Airman currently assigned as an IMA to the 3rd Combat Camera Squadron, Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, is an expert on the life of Etchberger. He spent seven years researching and writing a biography about the Vietnam War-era Airman who was killed in action and only received the Medal of Honor in 2010.
The biography, At All Costs, is on the 2016 Chief of Staff of the Air Force Reading List.
During the intimate gathering in the 157th Air Refueling Wing’s Loy Audiotrium, Proietti brought the story of Etchberger to life, setting the historical context and recounting the moments leading up to the instant of “Etch’s” tragic death.
The event was organized by Master Sgt. Randall Mullins and Staff Sgt. Christopher Boyer, both of the 64th ARS. Speaking on behalf of Boyer, who was the driving force behind the event but unable to attend due to a deployment, Mullins detailed how the speaking engagement came to pass.
Mullins, who is heavily involved in the Air Force Sergeants Association, said he and Boyer heard Cory Etchberger, Dick’s son, speak at the AFSA divisional conference in March. The story touched a nerve and they asked Cory if he could speak at Pease. He was unavailable but recommended them to Proietti, who is a native of New England and travels home on occasion. After about two months of planning, the event went off without a hitch.
What most piqued Mullins’ interest was the way Etchberger’s story was kept a secret for decades, due to the top-secret nature of the mission during which he was killed. At All Costs was a phenomenal book and is a story of rising above adversity, which can come from anywhere, said the operations support flight superintendent.
The biography, Proietti’s first, tells the story of Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. “Dick” Etchberger, a radar repairman during the Vietnam War, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 2010, 42 years after he was killed, March 11, 1968. Etchberger was shot while riding in a rescue helicopter following an overnight battle at Mount Phou Pha Ti, where he helped maintain a secret radar site that aided the U.S. bombing campaign in North Vietnam.
“The stuff [Etchberger] did shows that anybody, from any background, can pick up and do what he did at that moment,” said Mullins.
The speech was one of several Proietti has given since it was announced that his book made it on the 2016 Chief of Staff of the Air Force’s Reading List in May. The IMA learned about the nod for the list several months in advance, when he opened his email early one February morning and found a message with the subject line “congratulations.” Then came the waiting game.
“I knew before hand and it was torture because I was excited for the story to get out there,” he said.
What gripped Proietti most about Etchberger was that his story is a case study in an exemplary enlisted Airman’s career. Etchberger’s Air Force story unfolded over a career of 16 years, unlike those of many other Air Force recipients of the Medal of Honor who perished early in their own stories, allowing for a more complete picture of the man’s character to emerge. What the author found as he examined Etchberger’s life was an Airman who lived and breathed the Air Force Core Values.
Proietti believes the story actually lends itself more to film and recently finished a draft of a screenplay that focuses on the overall Project Heavy Green mission, with Etchberger as the protagonist. He believes writing the screenplay allowed him to explore Etchberger’s character more deeply. Since the book is factual and he couldn’t interview Etchberger, there was no way to write him into it other than second-hand accounts and historical records. With the screenplay, he had the latitude to delve into the character and imagine the things he would have thought and said.
Now that the screenplay is done, Proietti said he faces “the longest of long sots” – selling is screenplay. Despite the odds, he said a movie version of Etchberger’s story would breathe life into the story.
Proietti is an Air Force IMA assigned to the 3rd Combat Camera Squadron. IMAs are Air Force Reservists assigned to active-component units and government agencies. They are managed by Headquarters Individual Reservist Readiness and Integration Organization, located at Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado, and serve over 50 separate major commands, combatant commands and government agencies. Unlike traditional Reservists, who are assigned to Reserve units that regularly perform duty together, IMAs work with their active-duty supervisors to create a custom duty schedule that helps their unit meet mission requirements.
To learn more about the Individual Reserve, or to find vacancies, visit
www.arpc.afrc.af.mil/home/HQRIO.aspx.