Brother of UMUC Faculty Member to Receive Congressional Medal of Honor

Rocky Versace after receiving his Combat Infantryman's badge.

Rocky Versace in Puerto Rico, 1959.

Steve Versace

By Chip Cassano

A member of UMUC's "extended family" will receive a bittersweet honor in 2002. Thanks in part to the continued efforts of a dedicated group of friends and family members, Captain Humbert Roque ("Rocky") Versace, late brother of UMUC Professor Steve Versace, director of Executive Technology Programs, will finally receive the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award, for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life" while a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

Rocky Versace is believed to have been executed by the Viet Cong in September 1965, when he was 27 years old. His body was never recovered. Some might wonder why the struggle to grant Versace the Medal of Honor has gone on as long as it has. As one becomes more familiar with his story, though, the question seems to be more properly why it has taken more than 35 years for him to receive the honor he so clearly deserved.

A Model Soldier

A graduate of West Point, Versace volunteered for two tours of duty in Vietnam, after which he planned to leave the Army and join the Catholic priesthood. Tall and handsome, with dark hair and a ready smile, Versace drew attention everywhere he went.

Don Price, a Marine officer who met Versace in Vietnam, later told the Washington Post, "If you were going to ask for a West Point cadet from central casting, he was it."

With only two weeks to go before his second tour ended, though, Versace's company was overrun by a large enemy force. Versace was wounded in the leg and captured by the Viet Cong.

A Defiant Prisoner

While Versace may have been a model soldier, he was anything but a model prisoner. Fluent in French, Vietnamese, and English, Versace quickly assumed command in the prison, loudly challenging his captors' propaganda and demanding that they honor the rules laid out at the Geneva Convention.

Despite the fact that the untreated wounds to his leg had become badly infected, Versace made the first of four escape attempts only three weeks after he had been captured, crawling away on hands and knees, only to be recaptured and placed in leg irons. His fellow prisoners quickly realized that, besides serving as an inspiration, Versace's stubborn resistance made their lives easier by deflecting some of the abuse that might otherwise have been directed toward them.

During his captivity, stories would surface among admiring Vietnamese villagers, who told of the gaunt, barefooted American prisoner whom the Viet Cong dragged from town to town by a rope around his neck, but who argued constantly and defied his captors. Three times helicopters were sent to rescue Versace, and three times they returned empty-handed. The last anyone heard from Rocky Versace, he was singing God Bless America at the top of his lungs from a bamboo isolation cage.

An Overdue Honor

On December 31, 1968, one of Versace's fellow prisoners, First Lieutenant James ("Nick") Rowe, escaped from a Viet Cong prison after five years in captivity. He was invited to the White House to tell his story to President Richard M. Nixon. According to onlookers, Rowe made an impassioned plea to Nixon that Versace receive the Medal of Honor, and Nixon, visibly moved, ordered that the award be made immediately.

For a variety of reasons—some political, some simply clerical—the order was delayed in processing and eventually downgraded to the Silver Star for heroism in captivity. Rowe and others who knew Versace's story were dismayed, and through the years, they kept his memory alive. At various times, Versace's story drew the attention of members of the U.S. Senate and Congress, and even of General Colin Powell. Finally, patience and persistence paid off, and on December 28, 2001, President George Bush signed a bill to award Versace the Medal of Honor.

"The recognition, 35 years in coming, is the result of the efforts of many," said Steve Versace, "particularly the Special Forces Command, the West Point graduating class of 1959, and a group of people in Alexandria, Virginia, [known as] 'The Friends of Rocky Versace.' We are truly grateful to these people and proud of Rocky's exceptional behavior under the worst of circumstances."

To read a compilation of articles and documents about Rocky Versace, visit www.mishalov.com/Versace.html.