Eureka vet to be honored at July 5 ceremony
A ceremony naming a section of Highway 37 after a highly decorated U.S. Marine will be held this weekend at the County Annex Building in Eureka.
Retired Master Gunnery Sgt. Danny Radish will be honored at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 5. Radish served his country for 23 years before retiring in 1991.
Radish received the Silver Star Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during a medivac mission in Vietnam on Feb. 12, 1970.
Sen. Mike Cuffe said following the effort to rename the bridge over the Kootenai River in Libby after Arthur Rambo, he decided to introduce a bill to honor Radish.
Senate Bill 545 was signed into law May 12 by Gov. Greg Gianforte.
Radish was the crew chief aboard the lead aircraft in a flight of two transport helicopters that were assigned to evacuate 12 injured Marines following an attack on them by North Vietnamese Army soldiers.
The landing zone was still under heavy fire when Radish moved to the open ‘copter door to help direct the pilot on where to safely land. He then assisted the corpsman in rendering first aid, transporting five wounded soldiers to the craft and helped direct the pilot out of the landing zone.
A North Dakota native, Radish, the son of John and Dolly Radish, came to Eureka in 1954. He played football, basketball, track and summer baseball before graduating in 1968. Two days later, he was on a train headed for Boot Camp.
After several training schools, Radish volunteered for Vietnam in 1969. In addition to his Silver Star, he earned 78 air medals, representing 20 flight missions, a Purple Heart after being injured when his craft was shot down during a rescue mission, two single mission metals (similar to a bronze star), the Navy achievement and commendation medals, and numerous campaign medals.
But Master Gunnery Sgt. Radish’s work was far from over.
After returning to the U.S., he received the Navy/Marine Corps lifesaving medal after pulling a trapped pilot out of a CH-46 helicopter that crashed in New Mexico.
In 1982, Radish was deployed to Beirut, Lebanon as part of a peacekeeping force. In 1983, he helped recover casualties from the terrible terrorist bombing at the Marine Corps barracks where 243 Marines, sailors and airmen died.
Radish retired in 1991 and he held the highest non-commissioned rank as Master Gunnery Sergeant. He was also one of the most highly decorated enlisted aviation Marines.
In 1993, the Marine Corps Aviation Association began presenting the Danny Radish Award. It is presented to the most outstanding enlisted air crewman of the year at the annual aviation symposium.
When Radish returned to Eureka, he served as the safety director for Owens and Hurst Sawmill until it closed. He then worked at Boeing Corp., leading maintenance crews for the same Marine Corps helicopters in North Carolina and Iraq.
Danny and his wife, Deb, then returned to Eureka, the only place he ever called home.