Complex sentence: Word gets around that Pritchard personally reprimanded Savage for his claim of "radio malfunction" as an excuse to ignore the recall order but rather than incurring any form of punishment for this disobedience, Savage persuades Pritchard to recommend the group for a Distinguished Unit Citation.
Split into simpler sentences: Word gets around that Pritchard personally reprimanded Savage for his claim of "radio malfunction" as an excuse to ignore the recall order. But rather than incurring any form of punishment for this disobedience, Savage persuades Pritchard to recommend the group for a Distinguished Unit Citation.