Decorations register · Notice Nearby
No rights-safe contemporary likeness is on file. The record is the decoration and the writing, not an invented face.
William Maud Bryant
1933–1969
Sergeant First Class
Company A, 5th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces; commanding officer, Civilian Irregular Defense Group Company 321, 2d Battalion, 3d Mobile Strike Force Command
Documented decorations
Purple Heart
Named in the VA Honoring Veterans profile of Bryant’s wartime decorations (alongside Bronze Star Medal).
Public sources
Bronze Star Medal
Named in the same VA Honoring Veterans account. Do not invent a Combat “V” or oak-leaf count without a matching official list on this page.
Public sources
William Maud Bryant’s Purple Heart and Bronze Star Medal are named in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ own Honoring Veterans profile of his service. The same VA article lists those decorations beside the Medal of Honor presented to his parents at the White House on February 16, 1971. This decorations page records the Purple Heart and Bronze Star Medal from that account. It will not invent a Silver Star the VA list does not name, and it will not place a Medal of Honor chip on this awards row — same Murphy rule as the live register.
The Medal of Honor citation — Long Khanh Province, March 24, 1969 — covers thirty-four hours under siege with Civilian Irregular Defense Group Company 321: the ammunition run under fire, the patrol outside the perimeter, the breakout attempt, and the final charge on a bunker before a rocket killed him. That citation is the public record of valor. The Purple Heart and Bronze Star Medal are the published record of wound and wartime decoration. They are not the same sentence.
He is not yet on the Vietnam war-roll essay. Special Forces schooling and a Raleigh National Cemetery grave are public fact. They are not military decorations printed here as medals.
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.