California Gov. Gavin Newsom has begun the process to grant a posthumous pardon to Richard “Butch” Penry, a Petaluma resident who won the Medal of Honor for his bravery in Vietnam.
Upon his return from the war, Penry was convicted of both state and federal drug charges, which his supporters say arose from self-medicating for post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition that was little understood at the time.
Because Penry carries multiple felony convictions, Newsom needs approval from the California Supreme Court before he can pardon his state conviction. But his announcement on Veterans Day indicated the quest to clear his name by Penry’s surviving relatives and veteran advocates is gaining momentum.
Newsom announced pardons for five other veterans who currently or previously were California residents.
Penry’s sister, Patty Penry, told The Press Democrat Monday that she was excited about Newsom’s action. She added that if the governor completes the process, it will send a signal to veterans of Vietnam and other wars who struggle with PTSD and its impact.
“I’m thrilled for Butch,” she said, “but I’m also thrilled for how this could possibly help so many other people. That’s really what I’m happy about … this will help so many other people to possibly get the help they need, by making (PTSD) not such a stigma.”
Penry will still need President Joe Biden to pardon his federal convictions.
Last month, Sonoma County veteran groups that have been working to clear Penry’s name petitioned Biden for just that. At the time, a leader of the effort told The Press Democrat that a Biden pardon appeared to be the faster route to a state pardon, but also noted that Newsom could pursue approval from the state Supreme Court as well.
It was President Richard Nixon who awarded Penry his Medal of Honor — the nation’s highest military honor — in 1971, for his extraordinary valor during a nighttime battle in Vietnam.
The Press Democrat documented Penry’s exploits and the recent effort to clear his criminal record last June.
During a night mission on Jan. 31, 1970, a hail of gunfire and explosives from ambushing North Vietnamese soldiers left Penry the only member of his platoon unwounded.
Penry, known to friends and family as quiet and unassuming, fended off further attacks and repeatedly ran out under enemy fire to gather his wounded comrades, create a defensible position and find a working radio to call in air support.
When the helicopters arrived, he carried 18 wounded men — one after another — to the extraction point.
His commanding officer credited Penry with saving their lives.
When Penry first returned to Petaluma with the Medal of Honor, his hometown hailed him as a hero, throwing a parade and declaring July 5, 1971, as Richard A. Penry Day.
But like the generations of returning warriors who preceded and followed him, Penry carried unseen psychological scars. He also carried physical ailments he would later attribute to repeated exposure to Agent Orange, a chemical weapon the U.S. military applied broadly and to horrific effect in Vietnam.
In 1974, Penry was arrested on suspicion of selling cocaine to an undercover police officer. A Sonoma County judge sentenced him to probation instead of prison, saying Penry had “done more for his country in one day than most do in a lifetime.”
Subsequent arrests led to eight months in Sonoma County jail, where he apparently impressed deputies with his steady and polite demeanor.
He died in 1994, from the autoimmune disease and skin disorder lupus, at age 45. He and his relatives attributed his disease to Agent Orange exposure, though the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs declined to consider his condition service-related.
A growing number of elected officials have backed the effort to pardon Penry, including North Bay’s U.S. congressmen, Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman.
And among his supporters, Penry can posthumously count the police officer who made the undercover cocaine purchase from him that led to his arrest. In an interview last month, retired Petaluma police detective Phil Groat told The Press Democrat he still remembers sitting across the table from Penry and buying drugs in 1974, as a young narcotics officer.
At the time, Groat recalled wondering how someone who had performed so admirably as a soldier could become involved in the drug trade, “selling poison to people,” Groat said. But as his career evolved, he began to think differently about the Vietnam veterans he increasingly crossed paths with while policing.
“As I got older and started thinking about it, it always bothered me,” Groat said. “I am so sorry that a man who survived all of that had to turn to drugs and I think he was self medicating and then you might as well sell it.”
Groat wrote a letter to Newsom on behalf of the pardon effort. “By granting clemency to Sgt. Penry, we not only right a past wrong but also highlight the critical need for comprehensive Veteran services,” Groat wrote.
He also asked the governor to consider strengthening special court programs for veterans and to better train law enforcement officers to ask people they contact about their veteran status.
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