Notice Nearby

Decorations register · Notice Nearby

No rights-safe contemporary likeness is on file. The record is the decoration and the writing, not an invented face.

Stephen W. Pless

1939–1969

Major

U.S. Marine Corps; Helicopter / gunship pilot; VMO-6, Marine Aircraft Group 36, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing (Chu Lai / South Vietnam, 1966–1967); earlier MAG-26, shipboard tours, and flight instructor duty

Documented decorations

Stephen W. Pless’s Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart are named in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ #VeteranOfTheDay profile of his Marine aviation tour in Vietnam. This decorations page records those three types from that VA list. It will not invent devices the VA sentence does not carry, and it will not place a Medal of Honor chip on this awards row — the CMOHS citation for the August 1967 gunship rescue stands on its own war-roll pages when written.

Born in Newnan, Georgia, in September 1939, Pless flew hundreds of helicopter missions with VMO-6 out of Chu Lai and was promoted to major in late 1967. The VA account lists the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart beside other aviation awards for that combat tour. He died in a motorcycle accident on 20 July 1969 at twenty-nine. The Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart are the published decoration names this register carries from the VA account.

This name is not yet on a war-roll essay. The decorations above are the documented public record this register will stand on until that essay is written.

A publisher register — not a verification

This decorations register is publisher-curated from public records — Medal of Honor Society citations, published general orders, and official Army, Navy, and Marine Corps biographies. It is not a verified-veteran product. Notice Nearby does not certify service and does not issue badges.

A paid or unpaid memorial does not enroll anyone here. Checkout, VET50, and a family’s mention of service on an obituary are not applications to this list. We add a name only when a public official source names the decoration.

Claiming a decoration that was not awarded is stolen valor. It is a disrespect to those who earned the medal and, in some cases, a federal crime. This register will not invent an award to fill a page.

These pages are a historical register. They are not Legal Publication, not a newspaper notice, and not proof that a statute was satisfied.