WEYMOUTH — Joseph Tallon knew Daniel Richards for only a few hours in 1972, but those were the last hours of Richards' life in the waning days of American involvement in the Vietnam War.
Tallon was the pilot of an Army reconnaissance OV-1 Mohawk and Richards was his observer. The mission would be Tallon's 66th and the last for both. They were shot down when they were barely off the runway. Richards was killed, Tallon was badly injured from ejecting from a plane that was too low.
Four decades after the war, Tallon still had an obligation to fulfill, to make sure that Richards received the recognition he was due for being mortally wounded in combat: the Purple Heart medal.