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On his first approach to the base he was forced back by enemy fire, but he tried another flight path and was able to set down on a small and dusty landing zone. On March 17, 1971, Riggs flew the lumbering, troop-carrying helicopter on a voluntary medevac mission to a base at Phu Nhon which had been under heavy attack from a battalion of North Vietnamese soldiers, according to Army records. After three years as a soldier, Riggs went through Officer Candidate School and soon was piloting a twin-rotor Chinook above the central highlands of Vietnam.
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Riggs' rise to three-star general was heady stuff for a man who left the family's cotton farm in Missouri and enlisted in the Army in 1965, the same year America deployed combat troops to Vietnam. Garner and 40 other Riggs supporters - including an unusually candid group of retired generals - are trying to help restore his rank.īut even his most ardent supporters concede that his appeal has little chance of succeeding and that an act of Congress might be required. Riggs did not serve satisfactorily in the grade of lieutentant general." Riggs's comments, the Acting Secretary of the Army concluded that Lt. "Based on the review of the investigation and Lt. Riggs's overall leadership and revealed an adverse command climate," the Army statement said. The two contracting infractions "reflected negatively on Lt. Rumsfeld's office had no comment for this story, referring all questions to the Army, which issued a statement. "I still believe it was the right decision." Maybe I have a higher standard for these things," Brownlee said in an interview. "I read the report and made that judgment. Les Brownlee, who was then acting Army secretary and who ordered that Riggs be reduced in rank, said he stands by the demotion.