.

We asked him for a copy of his DD214 years ago.

Tercero was set to leave Camp Eagle the next day, the first step on his way back to the States.

He was a skinny, dark-skinned kid from the streets of Phoenix who usually wore a wry grin that implied, “I know something that you don’t” — which probably was true.

A “scrounger from way back,” as he refers to himself, Tercero knew how to find the best black-market deals on just about anything, which made him popular at the base.

He had enlisted in the Army as an 18-year-old, after stepping into a recruiting station in downtown Phoenix on a whim.

There are NO Purple Hearts on his Official List of Awards. The public can decide for themselves what the truth is.

We are contacting the national media about this and will be posting our message on blogs and other internet sites. With Tony leaving Vietnam the next day, maybe it was out of sight, out of mind. There is much more.

Author Henry Holzer recently wrote a book, Fake Warriors: Identifying, Exposing, and Punishing Those Who Falsify Their Military Service, which gives excellent analysis of and insight into the activities and motivations of people like Linderer. Instead, the next day, Linderer's 12-man team ambushed the rice-carrying women. He explains winning two Silver Stars using the same type of reasoning, i.e., one as a result of the ambush by his team of the small group of "NVA and VC" and another for the battle they supposedly fought later that day with the 200+ NVA and VC.

The records do not back up any of this. As a result, he enjoys the support of a large portion of the Special Forces and LRP/Ranger Vietnam veteran communities. As he was scheduled to leave the day after this happened, no one — least of all me — would have blamed him for not placing himself in imminent danger.

All his siblings are still living. Within a few months, we began to have serious doubts about being part of the stable of authors that Gary Linderer had brought to Owen Lock, the editor who was acquiring manuscripts of this genre for publication by Random House at that time.

Also read what was written about the 4 November 1968 patrol and compare it with the records.

 

The records at this link document the radio transmissions for November 4, 19, 20, 21, and 23,1968

 

Gary Linderer’s Official List of Awards (obtained via FOIA request from the National Personnel Records Center). Those threats have failed; I fully support him and will continue to stand beside him as we fight to bring the truth about Gary Linderer and his cohorts to the general public's attention.

If you have any questions and would like to speak with my husband Don Hall about this, please feel free to call him at 425-869-7153.

He also asked him to cease attempting to profit from veterans who served their country with honor. Only recently had the 38-year-old mother of two learned about her dad’s heroics in Vietnam. The records don’t differ slightly from Mr. Linderer’s version of the events; they differ greatly.

 

Read Mr. Linderer's books, and the other books written by colleagues of his who served in F/58^th LRP during that time, to learn what they say happened on this patrol.

If his official record in St. Louis is wrong, why hasn’t he had it corrected? If our work has kept you informed, helped you understand a complex issue, or better connected you to your community, please consider making a contribution today. Any military veteran who has any accurate knowledge about these records would be astonished to learn that they should be dismissed as merely second-hand hearsay.

Though their accounts about the events varied — dramatically, in some instances — a common thread would reveal itself.

To quote Riley Cox, an ex-Lurp who also performed heroically that November day and almost died of dreadful wounds suffered there:

“Tony Tercero performed in the finest and noblest manner of any man I have ever seen.

Don and Annette are the Executive Producers of the documentary, "Silent Victory," and the authors of the book, "I Served." Don Hall served as a team leader in Vietnam in Company F, 51^st Long Range Patrol (Airborne) Infantry in 1967-68.