UT alumnus Colonel Zane Finkelstein was the only army lawyer to be decorated for gallantry in action in Vietnam and the first to be awarded a decoration for combat heroism while investigating and paying claims. He received the Bronze Star Medal with “V” for valor device in May 1968.
He traveled to a Vietnamese village that had been mistakenly bombed by the US Air Force in order to pay claims to civilians who had been injured or whose property had been damaged in the attack. The Americans believed that there were no Viet Cong in the area, but the guerillas were not only still in the village, but were inside the defensive perimeter where Finkelstein was working. When the Viet Cong appeared, a firefight ensued, and Finkelstein used both his .38 caliber revolver and his M-16 rifle, fighting alongside the infantrymen to repel the attack. He also called in air support on the radio—but got artillery fire instead. After a brief engagement, the Viet Cong departed, and Finkelstein returned to his work.
As the official citation for his Bronze Star Medal explains, Finkelstein was recognized for a “display of personal bravery and devotion to duty” in “continually exposing himself to enemy fire” and having “efficiently investigated, processed, and paid 51 claims.”
Finkelstein, born in Knoxville in 1929, earned the BA (1950) and the LLB (1952) from UT. He served as editor in chief of the Law Review and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. From 1971 to 1975, he served as the first army legal advisor and legislative assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He retired from active duty in 1983.