Ft Snelling National Cemetery
After leaving the gravesite of SP4 Robert Larson in Section H, I headed northwest towards Section J, home to over two thousand more American veterans. Specifically, I’d be looking for the headstone of PFC Don Robert Klein, who served in Charlie Company, 3/12 Infantry. He was killed in action in northern Pleiku Province on January 28, 1969. His grave marker was J 2247, which put it in the second to last row of the section. I pulled my car around to the northern border, and spotted the headstone before I even left the road.
Klein’s headstone stands proudly next to a massive oak tree. The autumn winds had nearly stripped it’s once billowing canopy, leaving a scant few orange-brown leaves hanging on stubbornly above. I wondered how much this oak had grown in the past 50 years. I would love to find a picture of the funeral service that occurred for Klein in February of 1969, both to capture that solemn moment and to compare the tree size. Klein’s headstone remains largely unchanged from 1969, protected by this massive sentinel. A stalwart guardian for the ages.
Of the six men I would visit this trip, PFC Don Klein had served in Vietnam for the least amount of days before he was killed in action. Just 19 days passed from the day he arrived in country to the day he fell in a vicious firefight in the rugged hills west of Pleiku. His squad leader, Aaron Collins, barely got to know him. His time in Vietnam had been so short, I have yet to find a photo taken of him in Vietnam.
Landing Zone Gay – 25 kilometers southwest of Kontum City
On January 27th, 1969, Aaron Collins, Don Klein and the rest of Charlie Company, 3-12 Infantry had constructed a company sized patrol base on top of Hill 1072. Battalion leadership had named the patrol base Landing Zone (LZ) Gay. The old military adage of “seize the high ground” was a mantra repeated time after time with these hilltop landing zones. From their lofty peaks, platoon, squad or even smaller sized elements could patrol the ridges, draws and fingers surrounding the American position.
On January 28th, a Charlie Company ambush patrol consisting of about 20 soldiers was in position about 300 meters northwest of LZ Gay. At 1230 hours, they began receiving small arms fire from a North Vietnamese Army force. During the intense fighting that followed, PFC Klein and two other men (SP4 Gary Collins and PFC Philip Tritsch) were killed. Another soldier was wounded badly, and had to be medevac’d using a jungle penetrator device, which allows a hovering helicopter to lower a retrieval system through the thick canopy to the ground below. American air strikes and artillery were called in, and eventually the NVA force faded back into the jungle. Charlie Company reported finding blood trails and reported an estimated body count of 4-5 NVA soldiers. The Americans might have owned the hilltops, but often, the NVA owned the thick, dark jungles surrounding them.
Don Klein, who was only 19 years old when he died, left a hole in the hearts of those that loved him. An anonymous post from 2015 on his Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Wall Wall of Faces page lets us know that for some, that hole still remains.
Still Loving You
anonymous
Dear Don, you have been gone for 46 years and I think of you everytime, no matter where I’m at or what I’m doing, I loved you then and I still love you now. [sic]
Ft Snelling National Cemetery
The cold October wind picked up, and overpowered the scant amount of heat provided by the late morning sun. My time at the National Cemetery was running short, as I had committed to picking up two co-workers from the nearby airport and shuttling them to our hotel. Short as it was, I was glad to have this time amongst the headstones. Like with Robert Larson a few sections away, I placed a penny atop Klein’s headstone, and a small American flag just a footstep away from his name. I snapped a few final pictures, both with my phone and with my mind’s eye, capturing a last quiet moment at the Fort Snelling National Cemetery.