Ypsilanti's Own Medal of Honor Recipient

As I was taking pictures of the statue, I noticed this bench was in front of it.  It has been a while since I've been at the statue but I think this is fairly new.

 The bench is dedicated to Charles S. Kettles.  He was born in 1930 in Ypsilanti, Michigan and he died last year in Ypsilanti, Michigan.  I think I remember reading that.  He was drafted into the Army at the age of 21 in 1951.  He went to basic training in Kentucky and then went to Officers Candidate School at Fort Knox.   He was commissioned as an armor officer.  He then went to aviation school and graduated from there in 1954.  After leaving the service, he established an auto dealer in Dewitt, Michigan.
In 1963, he volunteered for active duty again.  There he went to helicopter school and learned to fly the UH-1D Huey.  He was deployed to Vietnam in 1967.

 It wasn't until 2016 that he would receive his Medal of Honor though.  It was through a campaign that was started by the Ypsilanti Rotary Veterans History project in 2012.  It was pushed through by Congresswoman Debbie Dingell and Senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow.  He was able to rescue some men from the 101st Airborne near Song Tra.  He started by leading a flight of six helicopters to evacuate the wounded personel.  He went back to rescue more people even though his helicopter was damaged.  The action that earned him the medal was when he went back to get eight troops that were unable to reach the evacuation zone.  He would find those troops under heavy fire and guided his aircraft there to rescue them.

This is a picture from Wikipedia of him during the Vietnam War.  After the war, he would complete his Bachelors Degree at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio Texas.  He would earn his Masters Degree from Eastern Michigan University.  He would later develop the Aviation Management program at Eastern Michigan University.