No wonder their U.S. and South Vietnamese commanders had asked him and his Vietnamese counterpart to fly up to provincial headquarters to get the mission plan verbally. It was 1969, and Cambodia was officially neutral -- though Vietnamese communist troops routinely hid there between attacks in South Vietnam -- and U.S. personnel weren't allowed to cross the border to fight.

Nearly 40 years later, the mission is still a bit sensitive. Tonight, in a long-delayed ceremony, Loving will receive a Silver Star, the military's third-highest award for valor, for his deeds that day, Oct. 22. The citation accompanying the medal describes it only as "a combat sweep toward the border." There is no mention of his orders to accompany South Vietnamese troops across the border to destroy a village built and occupied by Viet Cong fighters.

Loving, then 24 years old and now a Raleigh real estate developer, was in charge of a team of U.S. advisers assigned to help about 180 South Vietnamese soldiers based in a tiny village called Ben Cau in southwest Vietnam. The morning of the mission, 1st Sgt. Mack Rice, the only other American who would be coming, stepped out of their sandbag bunker and quickly ducked back in.

"This is going to be a terrible operation," he said.

Loving walked outside. The Vietnamese soldiers were strapping on every weapon they could find, from knives to anti-tank rockets. Their wives were hanging on them, crying.

The plan was to fly about 60 troops to a point just on the Vietnamese side of the border and then cross over on foot. Loving, Rice and the Vietnamese commander flew together. When they jumped out of the chopper, they were already under small-arms and mortar fire.

Two South Vietnamese soldiers were badly wounded, and Loving called in a medevac helicopter. The red smoke grenade showing it where to land also showed the Viet Cong mortar teams where to shoot, and the South Vietnamese soldiers vanished, leaving Rice, Loving and Loving's radio operator alone.

"The radio operator probably would have run, too, but I was holding on to the microphone," Loving said.

Rice loaded the two wounded on the helicopter, which took off. Then it was just the three of them, with mortar shells falling all around and a Viet Cong machine gun chewing at them.

Loving recalls looking at Rice and saying that he wanted to stay at least long enough to call in air attacks on the mortars and machine gun, and asking if Rice would stay, too. The sergeant readily agreed. It wasn't that simple, though. When Loving gave the pilot of an assault helicopter hovering nearby target coordinates, the pilot balked.

"Sorry, that's in Cambodia, sir," he said.

"You mean to tell me they sent us into here, but you don't have permission to fire?" replied an incredulous Loving.

"That's a roger," the pilot said.

Loving told the pilot that as the commander on the ground, he was declaring that the targets were indeed in South Vietnam. After a long pause, the pilot replied that he would fire.

The rockets apparently hit the machine gun crew and one of the two mortar crews. The trio dashed across a field, still under heavy fire, and found the others in a tree line, with two more badly wounded. The Vietnamese commander said he preferred to carry them back, as a medevac helicopter would just make them a target again.

The wounded men looked like they wouldn't live without quick help, though, and Loving once more called in a chopper. This time, according to the official Army citation, Loving helped load the wounded himself, as mortar rounds exploded nearby.

When the men got back to their base, Maj. James Barton, a U.S. officer who had watched the operation from a nearby helicopter, called and said that he was recommending Loving and Rice for medals. A few months later, though, U.S. and South Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia, and Barton was killed there. Loving thinks the paperwork for the medal died with him.

Honors accumulate

He got three medals from the South Vietnamese, including one for the operation in Cambodia, but for years heard nothing about the Silver Star. Rice eventually received his Bronze Star. Loving, though, didn't think much about his until he talked to Rice while researching a book: "Combat Advisor: How America Won the War and Lost the Peace in Vietnam."

Loving mentioned that he had never received his medal, and Rice replied that it might not be too late. It took more than two years, support from members of Congress and a written statement from a lieutenant colonel who had been second in command over the U.S. advisers in Loving's province.

Loving, now 62, will formally receive that medal tonight at a ceremony hosted by the Triangle chapter of the Military Officers Association of America, at the N.C. State University Club in Raleigh.