KEY POINTS:
Billy Walkabout, a Cherokee Indian whose actions in Vietnam made him one of the most decorated soldiers of the Vietnam War, has died, aged 57.
Walkabout received the Distinguished Service Cross, Purple Heart, five Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars. He was believed to be the most decorated Native American soldier of the war, according to US Department of Defence reports.
Walkabout died of pneumonia and renal failure. He had complications related to his exposure to the Agent Orange defoliant used during the Vietnam conflict and had been on a kidney transplant waiting list, having dialysis three times a week.
"War is not hell," Walkabout said in 1986, "it's worse."
