their parent organization in March 1973. In January 1973, President Nixon ordered a halt to all U.S. combat operations in South Vietnam and, on the 27th of that month, the Paris Peace Accords were signed by the belligerent powers in Paris. On 21 February, a similar accord was signed on Laos, ending the bombing of that country and instituting a cease fire. On the 29th, MACV was disestablished and remaining U.S. troops began leaving the south. On 14 August the U.S. Air Force ceased its bombing of Cambodia, bringing all military actions by the U.S. in Southeast Asia to an end. Recognition The U.S. military (and MACV-SOG personnel) kept tight security over knowledge of the unit's operations and existence until the early 1980s. Although there had been some small leaks by the media during the conflict, they were usually erroneous and easily dismissed. More specific was the release of documents dealing with the early days of the operation in the Pentagon Papers and by the testimony of ex-SOG personnel during congressional investigations into the bombing campaigns in Laos and Cambodia in the early 1970s. Historians interested in the unit's activities had to wait until the early 1990s, when MACV-SOG's Annexes to the annual MACV Command Histories and a Pentagon documentation study of the organization were declassified for the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs' hearings on the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue. One early source of information (if one read between the lines) were the citations issued for the award of the Medal of Honor to MACV-SOG personnel (although they were never recognized as such). One USAF helicopter pilot, two U.S. Navy SEALs, one U.S. Army medic, and nine Green Berets earned the nation's highest award on SOG operations: Staff Sergeant Roy P. Benavidez (who had to wait until he received his award from President Ronald Reagan) Staff Sergeant Jon Cavaiani First Lieutenant James P. Fleming (USAF 20th Special Operations Squadron) First Lieutenant Loren D. Hagen (posthumous), CCN/TF1AE Sergeant First Class Robert L. Howard (awarded on his third separate recommendation) Specialist 5 John J. Kedenburg (posthumous) Staff Sergeant Franklin D. Miller (5th Special Forces Group) Lieutenant Thomas R. Norris (Navy SEAL) Sergeant Gary M. Rose First Lieutenant George K. Sisler (posthumous) Engineman Second Class Michael E. Thornton (Navy SEAL), STDAT-158 Sergeant First Class Fred W. Zabitosky Twenty-two other members of the unit received the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second highest