Pentagon IDs Remains of O.C. Marine

The remains of a dozen U.S. servicemen -- including a Garden Grove man -- killed in one of the Vietnam War’s deadliest battles have been identified, ending a lengthy effort by a veterans group that worked with American and Vietnamese authorities to find the missing men.

The remains of Marine PFC Barry Hempel, who graduated from Garden Grove High School in 1965, were among those identified in recent months, Pentagon spokesman Larry Greer said Wednesday. Hempel and the others died when North Vietnamese troops overran Ngok Tavak, a jungle outpost near the Laos border May 10, 1968.

The ensuing battle resulted in 32 Americans missing, the most of any battle in the war. Some still have not been accounted for.

During the battle, which was a prelude to a North Vietnamese attack on a Special Forces camp at Kham Duc about three miles to the north, 10 aircraft were shot down, including two C-130 transports.

One of those carried six Americans and more than 150 Vietnamese civilians and crew, making it the deadliest air disaster at that time.

Thirteen Marines in Hempel’s 33-man artillery platoon died in the battle. Twelve Marines were listed as missing in action, along with two U.S. Army Special Forces troopers, including Army Sgt. Glenn E. Miller of Oakland.

Hempel, at 6 feet and 185 pounds, was a starter in his junior and senior years on the Garden Grove High football team. He was 20 when he died.

“Just today, I was looking at his photos in my album that I took when we were in Hawaii and Vietnam. I appreciate every day that I live, and I live every day for my buddies that didn’t come home,” said Dave Fuentes, 56, a former Marine who lives in Chicago and was wounded at Ngok Tavak.

Fuentes said Hempel spent much of the battle trying to get air support for the doomed camp. “I remember him screaming on the radio, trying to get us help,” he said. “When I didn’t hear him anymore, I put two and two together, and I knew he was dead.”

Fuentes said he went into the hole where Hempel’s body was and took his helmet, which was covered in blood, and put it on because he had had lost his own during the battle.

“I then took off one of his dog tags and put it in my pocket. I put the other inside his mouth,” he said.

Hempel’s mother, who lives in Long Beach, has declined interview requests.

For years after the battle, Marine survivors were angered by the official Marine account of the fight.

Marine Corps reports of the engagement stated that Hempel and 11 comrades escaped from Ngok Tavak but turned back to look for a Special Forces medic who was supposed to have been with them but disappeared -- a story that suggested that the men may have been captured and were alive.

Fuentes said he regretted “the lie told by the Marine Corps all these years because it gave false hope to the families [of the MIAs] that their loved ones might be alive.”

In an effort to correct the record, battle survivors joined with the Vietnam Veterans of America to lobby the Pentagon to recover the remains and give a true account of the battle.

“That’s what prompted me to start working on this. Somebody put out this story that wasn’t true,” said Tim Brown of Minnesota, a survivor of the 10-hour firefight that included hand-to-hand combat who began the effort to recover the remains in 1992.

“These missing Marines were killed in the early part of the battle.”

The veterans group brought Marine survivors and the two top Vietnamese commanders of the battle together in 1995 at Ngok Tavak to map out areas where the missing Americans might be found. After at least two excavations by Pentagon teams, the remains were recovered and identified.

Marine Cpl. Gerald King was another whose remains were positively identified.

“He was my world growing up; the best big brother ever,” said Dennis King, who lives in San Diego.

Hempel Miller and five others will be buried in a single coffin at Arlington National Cemetery in October, Pentagon officials said.