The Last Full Measure Pays Tribute to William Pitsenbarger
in the Battle of Xa Cam My Vietnam 1966 – Search (bing.com)
“The Last Full Measure” was released January 24, 2020,
Watch: The Last Full Measure (2020) – Bing video
Who was William H. Pitsenbarger?
William Hart Pitsenbarger (July 8, 1944 – April 11, 1966) was a United States Air Force Pararescueman who flew on almost 300 rescue missions during the Vietnam War
to aid downed soldiers and pilots.
Pitsenbarger was born in 1944 and grew up in Piqua, Ohio, a small town near Dayton.
As a junior in high school, he tried to enlist in the U.S. Army as a Green Beret, but his parents refused to give their permission.
After he graduated from high school, he decided to join the U.S. Air Force, and on
New Year’s Eve 1962, he was on a train bound for basic training in San Antonio.
During his basic training in early 1963, he volunteered for Pararescue. Training included the U.S. Army Airborne School, U.S Navy Dive School (SCUBA), survival school, and a rescue and survival medical course. More Air Force rescue training and jungle survival school followed. His final training was in air crash rescue and firefighting.[4]
He completed the requirements, and was one of the first group of airmen to qualify for Pararescue right out of basic training. After completing, he was assigned to the Rescue Squadron stationed at the Hamilton AFB, California.
Review by Marc Leepson, VVA Veteran Arts Editor and Senior Writer
The Last Full Measure, the fact-based Vietnam War-heavy movie that opened nationwide on January 24, 2020, features a five-pack of big-time Baby Boomer male actors playing Vietnam War veterans.
William Hurt, 70, offers up Tulley, an intense, troubled USAF vet, using many of the mannerisms he displayed in his portrayal of the troubled, impotent Nam vet Nick in the classic 1983 movie, The Big Chill.
Samuel L. Jackson, 71, as Takoda, is his usual intense self, as a troubled, one-time Army infantry LT still haunted by flashbacks from the catastrophic engagement that’s at the center of the film.
Ed Harris, 69, is a cranky codger who drives a school bus and stumbles along life’s path primarily because of something he didn’t do during the battle in question.
Peter Fonda, who died at 79 August 16, 2019, gave us Jimmy Burr, a mentally disturbed former infantryman scarred so deeply that he has retreated to a cabin deep in the woods where he sleeps during the day and hunts his demons toting a rifle when he’s awake at night.
John Savage, 70, is Chauncy Kepper who also lives in the woods, but back in Vietnam, where he has found inner peace battling his combat-induced trauma with the help of deep breathing—and butterflies. (Butterfly Room Scene 1 hour 09-minute mark.)
Watch: The Last Full Measure (2020) – Bing video
The other Vietnam War veteran character in the film is played by a real Nam vet, the great Dale Dye, 75, who also served as one of the movie’s three military technical advisers. Dye and former USAF Vietnam War Para-rescue MSG James Pighini and retired Marine SMAJ James Dever were responsible for the movie’s brutally realistic Vietnam War battle scenes. Dye plays a U.S. Senator who made a mistake during his tour of duty, but whose honor and honesty redeems him four decades later.
Not coincidentally, each of these AARP-member actors has played at least one Vietnam War veteran on the silver screen.
‘INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY’
Todd Robinson, who wrote and directed The Last Full Measure, has created a movie that, in Hollywood parlance, is “inspired by a true story.” What we get in this partly true and partly fictitious movie is both inspiring and deflating and both heartwarming and cloying.
The Last Full Measure: Pitsenbarger decided to stay on the ground – Bing video
The true story is the inspiring part. Here are the facts:
William H. “Pits” Pitsenbarger joined the Air Force when he was nineteen in 1963.
He volunteered for USAF Special Warfare as a Pararescue specialist, one of the most dangerous jobs in any war. He went to Vietnam in 1965 and served in the 38th Air
Rescue and Recovery Squadron based at Bien Hoa Air Base, and took part in more
than 250 missions.
During a horrific firefight on April 11, 1966, Airman 1st Class Pitsenbarger and his
crew came to the rescue of an encircled and outnumbered 2nd Battalion/16th Infantry Regiment/1st Infantry Division company at the Battle of Xa Cam My in the jungles 35 miles east of Saigon.
The company took 80 percent casualties, including 36 men killed in action in a VC ambush. When he learned that the company’s medic had been killed, Pits decided to try to help, rode the hoist a hundred feet into the heat of the battles, and descended into the fray.
On the ground, his Medal of Honor citation notes, “he organized and coordinated rescue efforts, cared for the wounded,” and “prepared casualties for evacuation.” Amid intense enemy fire, Pits personally rescued nine wounded men and refused to evacuate himself to try to get other wounded guys out of the fight. When sniper and mortar fire increased, Pits “took up arms with the besieged infantrymen.” He “repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire to care for the wounded, pull them out of the line of fire, and return fire whenever he could, during which time he was wounded three times,” and then mortally wounded.
The movie flashes back and forth to the battle and to its psychological aftermath among the five men recounting the story in the late 1990s during the effort to upgrade Pits’ Air Force Cross (the second-highest USAF medal for courage under fire) to a Medal of Honor. The battle scenes, shot in Thailand, are hyper-realistic. That includes shots of war carnage, enough that any war veteran who’s experienced it may be discomfited by the up-close shots of spouting blood, dismemberment, violent death, and the deafeningly loud, insistent ordnance zinging and casings flying.
Those scenes ably show the MOH-worthy actions and valor of Pits (played more than capably by the recruiting-poster handsome English actor Jeremy Irvine) and the deadly onslaught the Big Red One infantryman found themselves in.
That’s the good news about Last Full Measure.
The movie falls down, though, in most of the 1990s scenes, primarily the ones that Todd Robinson made up “inspired by” the true story of how Pits came to get the MOH. The biggest letdown is a completely fictional character, a power-hungry young man working his way up the DOD civilian ladder called Scott Huffman (Sebastian Stan).
Finally, a war story worth watching. Sebastian Stan’s new war drama film The Last Full Measure paid tribute to William H. Pitsenbarger and took 20 years to make. The movie is a great, well-rounded biography of war story. It is gripping and incredibly well acted with a first-class cast.
The Last Full Measure is about real-life Vietnam War hero William H. Pitsenbarger who tragically died at the age of 21 during a rescue mission in 1966 after saving countless lives during the war. More than 30 years later, Pentagon investigator Scott Huffman probes a Medal of Honor request for Pits made by his friend and parents.
Vietnam War
His first assignment in Vietnam was in the form of Temporary Duty (TDY). Upon completing his first TDY assignment, he volunteered to return and received orders in 1965 to report to Detachment 6, 38th Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron at Bien Hoa Air Base near Saigon.
A1C William H. Pitsenbarger with an M16 outside the HH-43 (Photo: USAF)
During his service, William H. Pitsenbarger flew on almost 300 rescue missions
during the Vietnam War to aid downed soldiers and pilots.
During his time in Vietnam, he has become one of the most reliable service members
in the 38th Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron. His commanding officer, Major Maurice Kessler, called him: “One of a special breed. Alert and always ready to go on any mission.”
On April 11, 1966, he was killed in action during the rescue mission in a battle near
Cam My, 35 miles east of Saigon. The Joint Rescue Center dispatched two Huskies from Detachment 6 to extract a half-dozen Army casualties pinned down and surrounded by Vietcong. Upon reaching the ambush site, he was lowered through the trees to the ground, where he attended to the wounded before having them lifted to the helicopter by cable. After six wounded men had been flown to an aid station, the two U.S. Air Force helicopters returned for their second load.
For the next hour and a half, Pitsenbarger attended to wounded soldiers, hacking splints out of snarled vines and building improvised stretchers out of saplings. When the others began running low on ammunition, he gathered ammunition from the dead and distributed them to those still alive. Then, he joined the others with a rifle to hold off the Viet Cong. Pitsenbarger was killed by Viet Cong snipers later that night. When his body was recovered the next day, one hand held a rifle, and the other clutched a medical kit. Although Pitsenbarger did not escape alive, nine other men did, partially thanks to his courage and devotion to duty.
One of the helicopters lowered its litter basket to Pitsenbarger, who had remained on the ground with the 20 infantrymen still alive; a burst of enemy small-arms fire hit it. When its engine began to lose power, the pilot realized he had to get the helicopter away from the area as soon as possible. Instead of climbing into the litter basket so he could leave with the helicopter, Pitsenbarger elected to remain with the Army troops under enemy attack, and he gave a “wave-off” to the helicopter, which flew away to safety. With heavy mortar and small-arms fire, the helicopters couldn’t return to rescue the rescuer. He is buried in Miami Memorial Park Cemetery Covington, Ohio.[6]
Medal of Honor
On December 8, 2000, at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, the airman’s father, William F. Pitsenbarger, and his wife, Alice, accepted the Medal of Honor from Secretary of the Air Force Whit Peters. During the same ceremony, he was also posthumously promoted to Staff Sergeant’s rank. The audience included battle survivors, hundreds of pararescue airmen, a congressional representative, and the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force.
His Medal of Honor citation recalls, “Conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty … his bravery and determination exemplify the highest professional standards and traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Air Force.”
When Airman First Class William H. Pitsenbarger perished while single-handedly aiding, evacuating, defending and providing medical care to a unit of soldiers pinned down by the enemy deep in the Vietnam jungle, he left behind a legacy of bravery, valiance, determination, and personal fortitude.
That legacy lives on in the new feature film, “The Last Full Measure,” which tells the story of the U.S. Air Force Pararescueman awarded the country’s highest military honor, the medal of honor, 34 years after his supreme sacrifice.
His memory is also honored by the Air Force Association through our annual Pitsenbarger scholarship program.
Each year, AFA awards scholarships to USAF enlisted personnel graduating from the Community College of the Air Force who plan to continue their education and pursue a baccalaureate degree. In addition to academic achievement, the grant recognizes Airmen who exemplify leadership, citizenship, teamwork, community service, personal development, and dedication.
Over the last decade, AFA has awarded more than $1.3 million in Pitsenbarger scholarship grants to more than four thousand deserving Airmen in his name.
To learn more, or apply for an AFA Pitsenbarger Award, visit https://www.afa.org/education/pitsenbarger-awards.
To donate to AFA’s Pitsenbarger program, please click AFA Scholarships and select “aerospace education” from the campaign dropdown menu.
Excellent scene, Samuel L. Jackson nailed it. The Last full Measure Scene Sebastian Stan & Samuel L. Jackson – YouTube
0ne 1 thought on “The Last Full Measure: Heroic story of William H. Pitsenbarger”
F. M. Patriot June 27, 2022, at 10:56 am
When I was growing up, it was men like William H. Pitsenbarger that formed my opinion of America and Americans. Squint your eyes and see the aura of the “Big Picture” not the dust on the window ledge. Be part of the miracle that is America.
