ANTIOCH — A U.S. flag neatly folded and encased in the military room of this city’s museum ended up there because, as the story went, it was draped around an Army soldier as he climbed on a helicopter from atop the U.S. Embassy in Saigon.
He was among the last American troops to leave Vietnam, he said, and brought the flag that kept him company during combat home with him.
The precious possession was later presented with great fanfare to the Antioch Historical Society during a Vietnam Veterans Appreciation barbecue fundraiser nine years ago, on the cusp of the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.
“We were so excited about it at the time. It seemed like a really good deal,” recalled Laura Jacques, a longtime volunteer and past president of the Antioch Historical Society.
But the flag will now be removed from the wing of the museum where other decorated Antioch soldiers’ keepsakes are on display after records show it was probably never in Vietnam — and neither was the man who claimed to carry it.
Military records obtained by this newspaper show the flag-bearing former U.S. Army sergeant, Michael Thomas Greenawalt, was in fact stationed in Germany, working as a desk clerk during the Vietnam War.
While the records from the National Archives and Records Administration do not show the complete personnel file on his service from 1972 to 1985, not up for debate are historical records that say the U.S. Marines — not Army…
