FACES FROM THE WALL

OREGON and the VIETNAM WAR

October - December - 1965


    JOHN DAVID MUSGROVE

Birth 24MAR28 Rank CPT Date of Death 04OCT65
P. of birth   Service Air Force (Reserve) Place Binh Dinh S. Vietnam
Town of
Record 		Eugene Unit 557THTFG SQ Death Code Hostile, Died Missing; Air Loss, Crash - Land Fixed Wing - Pilot
Hometown   service # 3003535 Panel 02EAST - 106
Married Married In service 14 yrs Medals Purple Heart  
Tour Date   Comment FAC Cemetery  

    GARY EUGENE ELFORD
Birth 14OCT47 Rank PFC Date of Death 30OCT65
P. of birth   Service Marines Place Quang Nam S. Vietnam
Town of
Record 		Newport Unit A CO 1ST BN 1ST MARS Death Code Hostile, Died; Other Explosive Devices Ground Casualty
Hometown   service # 2138867 Panel 03EAST - 05
Married Single Link Virtual Wall Medals Purple Heart  
Tour Date   Comment   Cemetery  

Thank you Virtual Wall for the use of the picture.

    ALAN LYNN BARNETT
Birth 15NOV47 Rank PFC Date of Death 04NOV65
P. of birth   Service Army Place S. Vietnam
Town of
Record 		Astoria Unit 1st Cav Div A Co 2nd Bn 8th Cav Death Code Hostile, Died; Guns, Small Arms Fire; Ground Casualty
Hometown   service # 19817915 Panel 03EAST - 16
Married Single In service   Medals Purple Heart  
Tour Date 20AUG65 Comment   Cemetery  

    WRIGHT BARTWYN HAMILL
Birth 26AUG46 Rank PFC Date of Death 04NOV65
P. of birth   Service Army Place S. Vietnam
Town of
Record 		Albany Unit 1st Cav Div D Co 2nd Bn 8th Cav Death Code Hostile, Died; Guns, Small Arms Fire; Ground Casualty
Hometown   service # 19817544 Panel 03EAST - 17
Married Single In service   Medals Purple Heart  
Tour Date 19AUG65 Comment   Cemetery  

    PAUL TRUMAN MC CLELLAN Jr
Birth 07JUL31 Rank CPT Date of Death 14NOV65
P. of birth   Service Air Force Place Pleiku S. Vietnam
Town of
Record 		West Stayton Unit 1ST ACS, 6251ST TFW, 13TH AF Death Code Hostile, Died; Air Loss, Crash - Land Fixed Wing - Pilot
Hometown   service # 74246Panel 03EAST - 50
Married Married MIA - BNRMedals Purple Heart  
In service 12 yrsComment Cemetery  

Extracted information from the POWNetwork) In November of 1965 troops were sent in on a search and destroy mission along the Cambodia/South Vietnam border. On 14 Nov 65 4 companies of the 1st Bn were sent to LZ X-RAY in that region. Unknown to the Americans, two North Vietnamese Regiments had been diverted to that area. The American troops were taking a lot of damage. Air Support was called in. About 3 p.m. on one of many low-level firing passes, the A1E flown by Capt. Paul McClellan was shot down. His aircraft crashed about 1 mile northeast of the landing zone, killing McClellan. When enemy soldiers tried to reach the wreckage, U.S. gunships destroyed it with rocket fire. More information about this incident is available at PowNetWork.Org

    ROLLIE LEE BOLDEN

Birth 25JUN42 Rank SP4 Date of Death 17NOV65
P. of birth   Service Army (Draft) Place S. Vietnam
Town of
Record 		Albany Unit 1st Cav Div A Co 2nd Bn 7th Cav Death Code Hostile, Died; Guns, Small Arms Fire; Ground Casualty
Hometown   service # 56365310 Panel 03EAST - 70
Married Single In service 1 yr Medals Purple Heart  
Tour Date 16AUG65 Comment   Cemetery  

    ROBERT S SHRIVER Jr
Birth 09OCT45 Rank SP4 Date of Death 17NOV65
P. of birth Salt Lake City UT   Service Army Place S. Vietnam
Town of
Record 		Eugene Unit 1st Cav Div A Co 2nd Bn 7th Cav Death Code Hostile, Died; Guns, Small Arms Fire; Ground Casualty
Hometown   service # 19758530 Panel 03EAST - 93
Married Single In service 2 yrs Medals Purple Heart  
Tour Date 16AUG65 Comment   Cemetery  

In Viet Nam
EUGENEAN, 20, VICTIM OF WAR
    Pfc. Robert S. Shriver Jr., 20, a graduate of North Eugene High School, has been killed in Viet Nam military action.
    Word of their son's death came Sunday to Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Shriver, 2975 Tomahawk Lane, in a telegram from the Secretary of the Army.
    The telegram said he was hit 17 Nov (1965) by hostile small arms fire while on a search and destroy mission with the First Cavalry (Airborne) Division.
    He had been in the Army for 2 1/2 years.
    A military representative will call on the Shrivers to discuss funeral arrangements.
    Born 9 Oct 1945 in Salt Lake City UT, Shriver came to Eugene with his parents about 9 years ago. He attended Cal Young Junior High School and graduated from North Eugene High School in June 1963. While a junior in high school, he was a member of North Eugene's state champion golf team and was named to the All-State golf team.
    Besides his parents, survivors include a sister, Pamela, 21, attending Brigham Young University and another sister Jill, 16.
    An incident which Shriver said happened while his squad was on guard duty was related recently by his father in letters to the editor of the Eugene Register Guard and the Oregon Daily Emerald, UO student newspaper.
    In the letter. Shriver described how a young Viet Cong mother approached the squad, dropped poison in the well the soldiers were guarding, and left here baby wrapped with an explosive charge which killed a corporal.
    Shriver is the 12th Oregon serviceman killed in Viet Nam since 1 Jan 1961, and believed to be the first whose hometown was Eugene.
    U.S. Navy Boatswain's Mate First Class Leon C. Stein, who served a three-year tour of duty at the Eugene Naval and Marine Corps Training Center, Air Force Capt. John Musgrove, 1952 graduate of the University of Oregon and formerly of Sutherlin, are the other victims of the fighting in Viet Nam with Eugene ties. (Eugene Register-Guard, Eugene OR, Monday, 22 Nov 1965)

    CARL BENJAMIN AUSTIN

Birth 13SEP23 Rank CDR Date of Death 02DEC65
P. of birth   Service Navy Place NZ N. Vietnam
Town of
Record 		Woodburn Unit FITRON 114 ONBD USS KITTY HAWK (CVA-63) Death Code Hostile, Died Missing; Air Loss, Crash - Land Fixed Wing - Pilot
Hometown   service # 493934 Panel 03EAST - 119
Married Married MIA - BNR Medals Purple Heart  
In service20 yrsComment Cemetery  

Extracted information from the POWNetwork) The PowNetWork has little information, currently, about this incident. View information about this incident at PowNetWork.Org

    ROBERT KNAPP COLLINS

Birth 24MAY44 Rank CPL Date of Death 08DEC65
P. of birth   Service Marines Place Quang Nam S. Vietnam
Town of
Record 		Eugene Unit 3RD MARDIV C BTY 1ST BN 12TH MARINES Death Code Hostile, Died; Guns, Small Arms Fire; Ground Casualty
Hometown   service # 2049439 Panel 04EAST - 01
Married Single In service 2 yrs Medals Purple Heart  
Tour Date   Comment   Cemetery  

Viet Fighting Claims 2nd Eugene Man
    Robert Knapp Collins, 21-year-old Marine corporal, is the second Eugene resident to be killed in action in Viet Nam
    Collins' parents were notified Saturday evening that he was killed last Wednesday.
    He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Collins of 1631 E. 26th Ave. The elder Collins is secretary and budget director of the State Board of High Education.
    Young Collins was a forward spotter with a field artillery unit. The notification his parents received - through the Eugene Marine Corps Reserve unit and by telegram - gave no indication of the circumstances of his death, other that it occurred in "action against hostile forces."
    Collins became the 14th Oregon man killed in Viet Nam war.
    He was killed near the town of Que Son, between Da Nang and Chu Lai. Marine forces have been engaged in heavy fighting with the Viet Cong in that area which is the northern part of South Viet Nam in the past week.
    Collins was a 1963 graduate of South Eugene High School. He entered the Marines soon after graduation and would have completed his three-year enlistment next June. He had been in Viet Nam since May.
    In addition to his parents, Collins is survived by a sister, Kathy, 18, a University of Oregon freshman.
    A memorial service has been set of 10:39 a.m. on 21 Dec (1965) at First Congregational Church. Collins' body is to be sent home some time later.
    His parents said that those who wish may make donations in Collins' memory to the First Congrational Church Memorial Fund.
    (Eugene Register-Guard, Eugene OR, Monday, 13 Dec 1965)
Thank you Oregon Genealogical Society

    DONALD WALTER LOVETT

Birth 11MAR45 Rank SP4 Date of Death 08DEC65
P. of birth   Service Army Place S. Vietnam
Town of
Record 		Portland Unit MACV Adv Team 1 Death Code Hostile, Died Missing; Multiple Fragmentation Wounds Ground Casualty
Hometown   service # 19731181 Panel 04EAST - 02
Married Single In service 3 yrs Medals Purple Heart  
Tour Date 04NOV65 Comment   Cemetery Willamette National Cem., Portland OR

    ARDEN KEITH HASSENGER
Birth 15SEP36 Rank CMS Date of Event 24DEC65
P. of birth   Service Air Force Place LZ Laos
Town of
Record 		Lebanon Unit 4TH ACS, 6250TH CSG, 13TH AF
DaNang Airbase, South Vietnam 		Death Code Hostile, Died Missing; Air Loss, Crash - Land Fixed Wing - Crew
Hometown   service # 544381218 Panel 04EAST - 37
Married MarriedDeclared Dead 01DEC77 Medals Purple Heart  
MIA BNR Comment  Cemetery Lebanon IOOF Cem., Lebanon OR

MIA information from pownetwork.org Arden Keith Hassenger was a crew member aboard a "spooky" aircraft so named because of the tactics the aircraft used in attacking ground forces. Using a method developed in Latin America to deliver supplies to missionaries. "Puff" and "Spooky" would identify the area they wish to attack using a flare and then take very tight turns (circles) that allowed the gunner to sight into a specific spot and bump as much as 18,000 rounds a minute into that spot. This attack was very successful in South Vietnam but the anti-aircraft defenses in Laos proved themselves superior. On 24 Dec 1965 Hassenger's Spooky, on an armed reconnaissance flight just south of the city of Ban Bac in Saravane Province Laos, was shot down. Aircraft in the area heard mayday signals but were unable to establish contact the crew. No American held in Laos was ever returned. More information available at Pownetwork.org

On 24 December 1965, President Lyndon Johnson announced a weeklong bombing halt over North Vietnam in honor of the Christmas holiday. At 0728 hours the same day, an AC47D gunship, call sign "Spooky 21," departed DaNang Airfield, South Vietnam on an armed reconnaissance/strike mission over the panhandle of Laos. They were to monitor enemy activity moving through this region known to contain several arteries of the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail. The crew was comprised of Lt. Col. Derrell B. Jeffords, pilot; Capt. Dennis L. Eilers, co-pilot; Maj. Joseph Christiano, navigator; TSgt. W. Kevin Colwell, flight engineer; MSgt. Larry C. Thornton and then SSgt. Arden "A. K." Hassenger both aerial gunners. The planned flight path was from DaNang to the target and back to DaNang. Further, the gunship was due to return to base at roughly 1330 hours

  • Photo & bio Sounce: http://www.taskforceomegainc.org/h029.html

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