‘I’M MR. LUCKY’
Winner of 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses among 6 to be honored Saturday at Soldiers & Sailors
When William J. Koshar was 18 in 1963, he decided he was tired of mowing his dad’s lawn in the tiny Westmoreland County community of Pleasant Unity.
He wanted a change. He joined the Army.
The decision he made that June day 61 years ago now has come full circle. On Saturday, Chief Warrant Officer Koshar, 79, is to be inducted into the Hall of Valor at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum in Oakland, one of six men to be so honored this year. Five are to be inducted posthumously.
Chief Warrant Officer Koshar will tell you that he is fortunate to be alive. The helicopter pilot was awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses for action in Vietnam, coming under intense enemy fire each time. The DFC is the nation’s fourth- highest award for heroism and the highest award for extraordinary aerial achievement.
“I’m Mr. Lucky,” he said this week from his home in Belle Vernon.
He had no flying experience until joining the service, but the escalating war in Southeast Asia created opportunities.
“The Army had a program — Vietnam was building up — to fly helicopters,” he said. ”I thought that sounded interesting, so I took a series of tests, passed them somehow, and was sent to Texas and Alabama to learn how to fly. I loved it. That was the only way to go.”
Service members who earn commendations don’t go looking for them, Chief Warrant Officer Koshar agreed.
“To win a medal, you get in a bad situation and do your best to get out of it,” he said. “Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don’t. I never even got a Purple Heart. I was allergic to those things.”
Asked which of his DFC actions he remembers best, he doesn’t hesitate. “The first one.”
On Oct. 12, 1966, he was fire team leader of a platoon of helicopter gunships. He tells the story:
“We got a call about a Special Forces unit trapped north of my base. They said they had a wounded soldier and asked us to pick him up. I set up my approach to land, and boy, the bad guys were down there, shooting. I aborted that approach, went around again, and then I got it on the third try.
“These guys were in airboats in a swampy area. I had to hover over an airboat where the wounded man was, and the bad guys were still firing. I tried to make myself as small as possible.”
The wounded man was lifted into the helicopter from the rocking boat, and Chief Warrant Officer Koshar flew him to Saigon, about a 25-minute flight.
“The man was in very bad shape when we loaded him onboard,” he said. “The DFC citation says we saved his life, but that wasn’t true. He didn’t survive.”
He said he didn’t know the man’s identity until about a year-and-a-half ago, when he found a site that noted casualties from each day in Vietnam.
“I always wondered what happened to that man. I tracked him down and found out that he was a decorated Green Beret from Alabama. I wondered all those years whether he made it.”
He received his other Distinguished Flying Crosses for action Feb. 17, 1968, when, according to the citation, he volunteered to extract an infantry unit from combat. He landed his UH-1H helicopter and immediately came under enemy mortar fire, but he stayed on the ground until he could complete the extraction and fly the soldiers to safety.
On April 19, 1968, he participated in a flight that led to his third DFC. The citation says he constantly exposed himself to intense ground fire as he made numerous trips into the embattled area to deliver troops and supplies.
After spending 5½ years in the Army, Chief Warrant Officer Koshar built a career as an inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration, continuing to fly for the FAA and as a member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, based in Washington, Pa.
His wife, Marlene, will accompany him to the Hall of Valor ceremony on Saturday.
Asked about the honor, he said, humbly: “I’m not impressed with myself. I’m happy, proud.”
The other five inductees are:
• Lt. Col. Joseph E. DeChicchis, of Allegheny County, Army Air Force, Distinguished Flying Cross for “for extraordinary achievement while participating in more than 100 hours of aerial flight over territory in Burma” during World War II. He flew unarmed cargo aircraft over hazardous terrain, transporting supplies and personnel and aiding with the evacuation of wounded soldiers.
• Pvt. Clark S. Hazlett, of Allegheny County, Army, Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with a machinegun company in France during World War I. He was killed in action Oct. 10, 1918, while trying to aid wounded men.
• Col. John W. Hinds, of Lycoming County, Air Force, Distinguished Flying Cross for flying a small observation plane in March 1967 in Vietnam and ferreting out and directing a fighter airstrike against a superior hostile force which had attacked an allied friendly unit. The citation says he was “was under almost constant hostile automatic weapons fire throughout the entire operation.”
• Sgt. Elmer F. Reese, of Beaver County, Army, Silver Star for gallantry in the vicinity of Wilgersdorf, Germany, March 30, 1945, during WWII. Although wounded, Sgt. Reese led his men “across perilous terrain ... to seize an important objective.”
• Tech. Sgt. Leonard S. Staniszewski, of Westmoreland County, Army Air Force, Distinguished Flying Cross for extraordinary achievement while participating in more than 100 hours of flight over Burma and China during WWII. He flew an unarmed transport plane to deliver supplies, equipment and reinforcements to forward areas.
The public is welcome and admission is free to the 2 p.m. Hall of Valor induction ceremony at Soldiers & Sailors, 4141 Fifth Ave. in Oakland. The ceremony will also be livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube.