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Jed Boal reporting A Vietnam War veteran from Utah recently returned from an emotional mission back to the site of a bloody battle. He and fellow Marines wanted to honor their comrades killed four decades ago.
Gary Campbell and nine fellow Marines returned to Hill 362 where they fought a fierce battle and lost nearly three dozen friends. They were amazed at what they discovered, and Campbell came home with a new mission.
Campbell feels peace today that took 42 years to find. "It was an amazing trip to see these people again," he said.
As he flips through photos taken in Vietnam last month, he feels joy rather than the anguish that gripped him in the decades after the war. "I met 10, 12 former enemies. Every one of them shook my hand, every one of them. Every one of them said, ‘Friends now. Friends now,'" Campbell said.
In July 1966 Campbell and his fellow Marines planned to take Hill 362 from their enemies for a radio tower, but the men of India Company ran into a battle with the North Vietnamese. Thirty-four Marines from their company died, and more than 70 others were wounded.
But on this mission they were welcomed with open hearts. "They showed no anger or hate. They seemed like they was actually wanting to see us," Campbell said.
The veterans returned to Hill 362. They didn't make it quite to the top, but they buried stones on its shoulder with the names of their fallen Marines and said a prayer for each. "To show respect and honor to our fallen brothers," Campbell explained.
Later in the trip, a Vietnamese man ran up to Campbell with a dog tag that read: "J.R. Miller. Marine. LDS."
"Chills went down my back. Like, was I meant to get this for some reason? So, my idea is to find the owner of this dog tag," Campbell, who is also LDS, said.
Campbell wants to find J. R. Miller or his family. The tag doesn't have a first name, and he could be from Utah and could be alive or killed in action between 1966 and 1973. Campbell wants to find the family or the man and return the tag.
E-mail: jboal@ksl.com
