“I cannot emphasize enough the role my faith played in any success I have had. It was the source of whatever courage I had a constant source of comfort, of calm and of the confidence that allowed me to do things that for me would have otherwise been impossible. For reasons that escape me, the Good Lord has seen fit to bless my life in so many ways, not the least of which was saving lives.”
-General Brady
General Patrick Brady is widely recognized as the most highly decorated living veteran. He is one of two living veteran to hold both the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross, our nation’s second highest award. He has earned over 85 medals, 65 combat-related and 12 for valor. In two tours in Vietnam he flew over 2500 combat missions and rescued over 5000 wounded, men, women, and children, enemy as well as friendly. He is the founder of The General and Nancy Lee Brady Foundation dedicated to his late wife’s passions: the elderly, homeless children and unwed mothers with special consideration for military families and veterans. General Brady is convinced that whatever success he has had in life and saving lives is because of his faith. He travels frequently sharing a message of courage based in faith, sacrifice based in love and the role of patriotism in our nation’s future.
Major General Brady spent over 34 years in the Army serving in duty stations all over the world. He was in Berlin before and after the building of the Wall. He served in the Dominican Republic during that conflict, in Korea as commander of the troops at the Joint Security area of the DMZ and for 2 years in Vietnam as a helicopter ambulance pilot. He has eight years’ service with America’s citizen soldiers, our Reserve Components, and is a former Chief of Army Public Affairs.
While in Vietnam he was awarded the Medal of Honor for a series of helicopter rescues which began at sunrise and ended after dark. Repeatedly he was warned by competent advisors that the missions were impossible due to weather, the enemy situation and mines. Major Brady convinced them it had been, and could be done. On three different missions and six tasks Major Brady rescued wounded soldiers from areas where other aircraft failed, on one mission 7 times. On two different occasions his aircraft were hit by automatic weapons fire. On a third, his aircraft was severely damaged by a mine. Major Brady’s aircraft were so severely damaged that three aircraft were required to complete the missions and at the day’s end the aircraft he flew had over 400 holes in them. In the process two crew members were wounded. That day Major Brady evacuated over 70 patients many who would have died without expeditious medical care.
In two tours in Vietnam he flew over 2500 combat missions and rescued over 5000 wounded, men, women, and children, enemy as well as friendly. He developed foul weather and tactical techniques for air ambulance rescues never before executed in combat for which he is identified in the Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War and other books as the top helicopter pilot in that war.
Gen. Brady is the only living veteran to hold both the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross, our nation’s second highest award. He has earned over 85 medals, 65 combat related 12 for valor. His other awards include: two Distinguished Service Medals; the Defense Superior Service Medal; the Legion of Merit; six Distinguished Flying Crosses; three Bronze Stars, one for valor; the Purple Heart, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with palm and silver star and 53 Air Medals, one for valor.
His civilian awards include the Distinguished Citizen Award from the American Legion, their highest award, and the Daughters of the American Revolution’s Medal of Honor.
General Brady is a Master Army Aviator and member of both the Army Aviation and Dust Off Halls of Fame. He is the first and only Army Aviator in the National Aviation Hall of Fame. He is also the only Army Aviator to receive the Bob Hoover Freedom of Flight Award and was recently inducted into the Living Legends of Aviation.
He is widely recognized as the most highly decorated living veteran.
General Brady is a past President of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Seattle University and an MBA from Notre Dame University. He is a former Commissioner of the Battle Monuments Commission at the time it completed the World War II memorial.
Along with his daughter Meghan, he published Dead Men Flying, which covers his experiences with the origin and execution of Aero Medical evacuation in Viet Nam, called Dust Off, the greatest battlefield life saver in history.
Despite his numerous awards, General Brady is convinced that it is not the medals that makes a person, but rather what you do with them. Accordingly, he has dedicated his life to our youth, the elderly and veterans and has a foundation for this purpose: generalpatbradyfoundation.org.
