The Air Force Pararescueman Creed is "That Others May Live"

On December 8, 2000, Airman First Class William Pitsenbarger became the second Air Force enlisted man to be awarded the Medal of Honor for valor in the Vietnam War. (The first was John L. Levitow, who died in November 2000 at age 55 after a lengthy battle with cancer.)

In a ceremony at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, William "Frank" Pitsenbarger accepted the Medal of Honor on behalf of his son from Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters. The presentation of America's highest decoration for valor upgraded the previously awarded Air Force Cross. "Your son is not just a true hero of America's Air Force, but a hero for all of America," Gen. Michael E. Ryan, Air Force chief of staff told Mr. Pitsenbarger and his wife, Alice.

Wiping away a tear, Mr. Pitsenbarger said, "Bill would have thought, 'What's all the fuss about? I was just doing my job.'"

Bill Pitsenbarger was an elite Air Force pararescueman, or PJ. Combination medic-commandos, the PJs are an elite all-volunteer force who make their living leaping from helicopters into enemy territory to rescue endangered soldiers and fellow airmen. The PJs earned more decorations per capita than any other Air Force unit in Vietnam.

In the spring of 1966, "Pits" was nearing the end of his combat tour and his Air Force enlistment. A 21-year-old veteran of about 300 rescue missions, the Piqua, Ohio, native wore the Air Medal with five oak leaf clusters and there were recommendations for four more. But, with four months remaining in Vietnam, Pitsenbarger already had plans to leave the Air Force and attend Arizona State University.

On the afternoon of April 11, his PJ unit learned that a Viet Cong force had ambushed a 180-man element of the Army's 1st Infantry Division in a nearly impenetrable jungle 35 miles east of Saigon. The soldiers would have to be evacuated by two hoist-equipped helicopters, and Pitsenbarger volunteered to take part in yet another rescue mission.

With his HH-43 Husky hovering over the battlefield, the PJ scrambled onto a hoist. Wearing a flak vest and armed with a .38 caliber pistol, Pitsenbarger was lowered through more than 100 feet of jungle canopy amidst raging small arms fire. The soldiers below gaped in astonishment as the young PJ hit the ground and went into action treating the wounded and hoisting them to the waiting helicopters. After numerous successful evacuations, Pitsenbarger ignored standard procedures and remained on the ground with the 20 surviving infantrymen instead of leaving with the helicopter. He continued treating and evacuating the wounded, arming the survivors and returning fire at the enemy.

"I couldn't believe that anybody was brave enough or crazy enough to come down on the ground with all this firing going on," a survivor recalled for ABC News in December. "Even though there was 700 guns firing at the same time, it was to him like nothing was going on. Like nothing could hurt him. He came there to save lives and that's what he was doing. He must have saved 40, 50, 60 guys that are living today."

At about 7:30 p.m. that evening, Bill Pitsenbarger died of multiple gunshot wounds. When they found him the next morning he had a medical kit in one hand and a rifle in the other. In his death, Bill Pitsenbarger fulfilled the PJ's creed:

"It is my duty as a Pararescueman to save life and aid the injured. I will be prepared at all times to perform my assigned duties quickly and efficiently, placing these duties before my personal desires and comforts. These things I do that others may live."