US Air Medal – Five Years On.

Even five years on, I find it difficult to believe. Having pursued so many dead ends, that the award of the US Air Medal should take place in 2018 after so many years of research was a landmark in my life that I won’t easily forget. Furthermore, that the presentation should take place at the Australian War Memorial on the 100th anniversary of Australians and Americans serving side by side provided a sense of ceremony that Dad, Phillip Zupp, would have been staggered by if he had lived to see it.

The turning point in the story came when Air Chief Marshall Mark Binskin AC read my book, “Without Precedent”. He was subsequently able to follow up the official channels, in conjunction with research conducted by Air Commodore Devine, in a way that I never could. And while the window had passed for the recognition of the Purple Heart, the US Air Medal recognised Dad’s actions on February 6th, 1952, in the frozen skies of Korea.

The night of the presentation at the AWM was particularly special on the anniversary of the Battle of Hamel. My Dad’s uncle had been killed in action at Hamel, so the significance of the evening was twofold. When the moment came to accept the decoration from ACM Binskin, there was a part of me that couldn’t believe it was happening and another part that wished both my parents could have been there. The next day we gathered with our children at the Australian War Memorial and photographed them beside Gloster Meteor A77-368, the very aircraft in which Dad flew his first combat mission in Korea.

In a final and highly appropriate gesture, I was honoured that ACM Binskin consented to write the foreword to the second edition of “Without Precedent”. The final chapter having had to be rewritten because of his efforts in pursuing the award of the US Air Medal. Revisiting that evening has given me time to reflect upon the entire journey and while the book is a biography of my father, the efforts of so many service men and women make the story so much more than that. And that I was privileged to meet and interview those same veterans is an experience that I will always carry with me.

It may be five years on, but they are certainly not forgotten.

Lest We Forget.