YPSILANTI, MI – Former US helicopter pilot Charles Kettles who fought during the Vietnam War will be awarded the Medal of Honour – the country’s highest military honour for valour – from President Barack Obama next month.

The recognition comes 49 years after Kettles saved the lives of 40 soldiers and four crew members while in combat on May 15, 1967.

On Thursday, the 86-year-old retired lieutenant colonel fronted a group of reporters inside a Michigan National Guard building in his hometown of Ypsilanti.

Kettles said that he did not hesitate to volunteer leading an airborne rescue mission that saved the lives of dozens of troops despite the prospect of coming under intense enemy fire.

“There wasn’t any decision to be made. We simply were going to go and pick them up,” he said.

Aged 37 at the time, Kettles was an Army major who led several helicopter trips to rescue wounded soldiers while taking fire by Vietnamese forces, near the district of Duc Pho in Vietnam.

“It’s certainly a great honour, but nothing will upstage the fact that we got 44 men out of there.

“That award belongs to some 74 helicopter crew members each of which were requested to do their job. They did that and then some.”

Kettles previously served in Korea, Japan and Thailand, according to a White House statement on Tuesday.

He served as a flight commander in the 176th Aviation Company, 14th Combat Aviation Battalion.

Kettles then went on to develop an aviation management program at Eastern Michigan University’s College of Technology and work for Chrysler Pentastar upon his return to the US.

Click here to watch the press conference

– TiVi Tuan-san