For those who look at the “Wall”, John Hansen is just a name among 58,000+. John Hansen was a real live human-being. He was my first love.
I was just a skinny 14-year-old girl wearing pig-tails and had a big nose as my face was pretty thin. He was my field boss one summer when we were kids picking raspberries and he would play his guitar. It was 1967 and he was wearing “Battle Fatigues”. He may have been on leave before going to flight training to become a helicopter pilot.
The reason I knew it John Hansen, is that people said that is who he was. He was kind of tall and gangly and at the same time rather nice looking. When I’d get on the old school bus that transported the berry pickers from Cascade Locks to Corbett, I’d be covered with in ripe, juicy berries. John didn’t pay any attention to that skinny little 14-year-old. I wish he could have seen me when I grew up and wasn’t quite so skinny.
In 1969, I saw in the newspaper that John had been shot down in his helicopter over Vietnam. I clipped the newspaper article and kept it in my desk drawer in my bedroom for many years. When I first read the newspaper article I cried and ran outdoors and wrote my first story ” The Boy in the Raspberry Patch”. At 20, I wrote another story called “Sand Castles” about a young soldier who built sand castles with candles in them for a lonely girl he left behind.
My sister said that is why I never found true love because so many of them were killed in that war. I’ve had John with me a lot in my life. I know he is not far away and I will see him again someday.
I read somewhere that a soldiers who dies for freedom never really dies for those who keep them in their hearts. John Hansen is one of those soldiers. Everyone who knew John loved him. I will never forget him.
War Story:
John Hansen and John Powell were flying a First-light mission in the AO. As they were flying toward the AO, a patrol of the other guys was spotted. John rolled “hot”, engaged and the patrol scattered. “Little Bird” then became the “Hunter”, a back pack was found. John landed his bird next to the pack, and as the crew chief (name I do not remember) was leaning out of the bird to pick up the pack, a soldier from the other side stood up just a few feet in front of the little bird and opened fire with an AK-47. I recall someone saying the guy was approx. 20 feet in front of the little bird. Regardless of the distance, he did not miss. The month of July, 1969 was the longest and most horrible month I have spent in my lifetime. Its funny how I am remembering little things which occured during that month. As an example, The night before, John H. was in his houch, playing a guitar like he was playing a banjo. He was really bending the strings; it sounded really good – it was the first time I had heard a guitar played that way. Anyway, John was Calvalier 15 when I arrived in country. I became cavalier 15 after John. We lost a large number of very brave young men during that month. John had been in country long enough to have proven his bravery over and over again. (The number of losses totaled around 10, does not include the ones medivaced.) Julie, you mentioned John Powell must have been the best cobra pilot in the unit. You must have been listening to John – just kidding a little. I flew many missions with John as my high bird. I cannot verify his being the best cobra pilot but I can verify he was the “Fastest Draw”. If the little bird called “taking fire”, he had better be pulling pitch and hauling “a..”, because John had already punched off a pair of rockets – and he made no secret of the fact he used the little bird as a target or reference point to place supressive fire. Thanks John. David was still in lift platoon when John went down. The Blues were inserted and it is a highly probability David flew on that misson. I’m getting behind on trying to send information I remember. One quick little story, The very first pilot I flew with in country was John Anderson. John was a character – he never met a stranger. I think he knew everyone at Phouc Vinh – that includes other units also. He was that type. He enjoyed a philosophical discussion. When we started out on the mission (as I said, my first) I had no maps, etc. We were going over to A Troop to help them out – seems they had been hit pretty heavy recently. I was a little concerned – I had noticed John did not have a map either. I asked him if he knew where we were going – he assured me he did. After the second time I asked and he reassured me, we took off. To make a long story short, we finally make our destination – by taking the senic route, across the “angels wing” (Cambodia) and areas to the south. Will continue to write more later. With caring memories of all the brave young Cavaliers. Cecil Smith Cavalier 15/56-C, August 1999.
John Hansen was assigned to Charlie Troop 1st Squadron 9th Cavalry 1st Cavalry Division (AM) on January 8, 1969 and was Killed In Action on July 15, 1969. John was a Pilot of an OH-6A Light Observation Helicopter. He was awarded the following medals for his service: Purple Heart, Air Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Vietnam Service Medal and a set of Army Aviator Wings.
Charlie Troop 1st Squadron 9th Cavalry Regiment 
Judy Graves
February 6, 2010
I went to school with John our junior & senior years in Cascade Locks, Oregon. We were a very small school (21 in our graduating class), so we were more like family than fellow students in the hall. John was smart, good looking and kind. He played in a some sports but his biggest talent was playing the trumpet. We dated for a short time and listening to him play “Stormy Weather” ……..well, there just wasn’t anything else like it. To this day, when I hear that song, I think of John. He was kind of a “rebel” too. lol I don’t remember the exact circumstances, but the school administrators told us (all students) we couldn’t hold hands walking down the hall. John didn’t agree, so I believe he drew a line down the hall floor and we all supported him by boys walking on one side of that line, and girls on the other. How funny to remember that now and I know I don’t have all the details correct, but so fun to sit and reminisce. John, like so many others, never got the chance to grow into older adulthood, marry, have children, etc., but that skinny, trumpet playing boy will always be remembered by all of us who went to Cascade Locks High School.
patrickbieneman
February 6, 2010
Judy,
Thank you for giving us more insight into John Hansen the man. It shows how special John was. Most people forget their classmates names after ten years but here it is a few more than ten years since and you remember him with such fondness.
Pat
Ric Carlson
February 11, 2010
John was one of the neighborhood kids that I grew up with. A small town where we spent most of our time playing outside, sometimes getting in trouble but most often just being good kids. We played baseball at a makeshift playing field in a sheep pasture, football in the front yard of a nearby motel, and basketball at any number of spots where someones dad had put up a hoop on a pole.
High school brought more serious endeavors at trying to stay out of trouble. John’s mother taught math classes and we all would invariably do something to get in hot water. While Mrs. Hansen was concentrating on math examples on the blackboard we would be throwing things back and forth in the classroom. Just as John would get ready for his pitch someone would throw an eraser at the blackboard next to Mrs. Hansen. She of course would turn around just in time to catch her son in the act. The response was always the same. Outraged at her son for such behavior she would chew into him and then announce that further measures would be taken when he got home.
The Hansen’s basement was also a place of refuge and a location for getting a little wild some times. Hockey with golf clubs and a golf ball always managed to break something as well as raise a welt on some poor kids head or other body part. We survived just fine.
The scientist in John also had the basement as a laboratory. The space race when we were kids had John thinking he could be a rocket scientist. Yes he built a rocket and he fired the rocket. Yeah he did this in his basement. At the moment I can’t remember if it just made a hole into the kitchen above or actually started a fire. Either way all his friends were duly impressed.
Remember those HUGE cars in the 50’s and 60’s. Well the Hansen’s had a Buick that I think was a 1958. It was gigantic and was a rose color. I hate to say it might have been pink. The interstate was in the process of being built thru the Columbia Gorge at the time and John was just learning to drive but like any male teenager he envisioned himself as another Mario Andretti. On one outing with the car filled with a few friends and John behind the wheel he announced (as we sped down the road at about 80 mph) that he could thread the needle between a couple of barrier posts. You know, the ones they eventually secure metal guard rail to. He did pretty good. Unfortunately the car was really a bit too wide. With an earsplitting ripping of metal and shower of sparks both front fenders kind of separated from the car. Mom, I had a slight fender bender!!!!!!
Yeah, those were fun days. We got in trouble, but for the most part we were good kids and the ones that survived (which surprisingly were most of us) went on to lead good lives as responsible adults. i do miss him!
Deborah Strode (Fahnholz)
February 15, 2010
I was the girl in the berry patch who didn’t know John very well but have felt him alot with me in my lifetime. I’ve emailed alot of people who did know him including his sister Sandra, good friends Mike Coats and Steve Irving, and his nephew Ben (Ellen’s son) who said he looked alot like his uncle. Plus, I’ve gotten emails from men he served with in Vietnam and his Platoon Leader Dave Keel who was in the same helicopter the day John was killed. They had landed to pick up a “back pack” and the enemy opened fire on John with an AK-47 and didn’t miss. The night before he died he was playing his guitar in his hootch and the person said who wrote this, that John was really strumming the strings.
I lived in the same town John did and he and his family lived right above us when I was just in diapers and he was riding his tricycle on Moody Avenue in Cascade Locks. My sister’s Janis and Carolyn told me he was a cute little blonde boy. My sister Janis used to go over to the Hansen’s and play with John’s sister Sandra.
Mike Coats and Steve Irving were good friends of John and I knew Mike who came to our house quite a bit while I was growing up and could eat an entire cake by himself and watched our Motorola Color Television Set. Before Mike went to Vietnam we got into a “block” fighting contest and he later denied he’d hit us with blocks, but I remember it very well. Steve who has kept CLHS graduates updated on our old high school events and happenings in our home-town, told me he was the one who took both John and Mike to the bus station when they went to Vietnam. Steve couldn’t go because he had a bad heart.
Once while visiting my sister in the Columbia Gorge in The Dalles there was a memorial of all those killed in the Vietnam War and John was listed.
John’s mother Grace Hansen was my Algebra teacher. We didn’t dare throw things at one another as mentioned earlier. She was just mean! Most of my teacher’s at CLHS were mean as I remember! We had a whooping cough epidemic in 1969 when I was a sophomore, the same year John was killed in Vietnam. We were in her room “whooping” like cranes and she told us–“Listen you little idiots go get a drink of water if you have any brains!” If we’d ask her how to do a Algebraic equation she’d look at you like you were completely moronic and show you how. I think the reason she had this kind of attitude was that she’d been a College Professor and teaching in a small high school was probably beneath her dignity. Having worked as a teacher I now can understand her attitude!
In 1968-69 while John served in Vietnam and later killed, I wrote to a boy over in Vietnam who wrote and told me he was playing cards waiting for dear old Charlie. I wrote back and said–“I hope your friend Charlie shows up on time!” I was only 16 at that time, what can I say? Every Vietnam vet I’ve told that too has always laughed.
Brian came home and took me to my HS prom in May 1969 and I was wearing a pretty pink dress with long white gloves. I still have our picture together. I never thought I was very pretty as the girls always called me a “geek” for reading so much and getting on honor roll but I saw that picture of me dancing with John and I was beautiful. It was a couple months before John was killed.
I started writing my stories and kept his newspaper clipping in my desk drawer for years. At 20 I wrote a story about the “Sandcastles” about a young soldier who’d light castles for a girl he left behind.
One time at about 21 years of age I’d gone to a dance in Washington and met this guy named John just home from the war. He just wouldn’t let go of me and looked so much like John Hansen. He wanted to go out the next week and I couldn’t go because of coming down sick and he went out and got drunk and ended up in a bad car accident. I felt bad about not visiting this poor boy in the hospital.
I’ve been very sick the last couple years and a survivor of cancer and when I came out of my second surgery I could hear this most beautiful music called the “Impossible Dream.” I read somewhere that was one of John’s favorite songs and “Stormy Weather.” I just felt him there holding my hand.
His sister Sandra said John didn’t have to go to Vietnam he could have played in the Army band he played the trumpet that well! But he felt other men were fighting and dying was he any better than they were? That kind of told me the character of John Hansen. He was no coward.
I know I will see him someday.
One of my favorite movies is “Forrest Gump” and when Forrest is in Vietnam he says–“I think some of America’s finest young men fought in this war.” And I really believe that is so true! I’ve given so many of them hugs and told them “welcome home!” So many were spit on when they came home! I’m glad I never treated any vet that way, just loved them as my brothers.
Deborah Strode (Fahnholz)
February 16, 2010
I wanted to comment again that is was my sister Carolyn who was friends with John’s sister Sandra. My sister Janis was about 8 years older than John and Carolyn was just two years older and I am seven years younger than he is. But these are our memories of him. They remember him as a cute little boy on his tricycle and I remember him as a young man getting ready to go to war wearing battle fatigues. My sisters used to get into some pretty good snowball fights with the Coat’s brother Mike and Red and both of them went to Vietnam too. I think everyone in Cascade Locks “knew” everyone else. We were really a very small community and when someone was killed in the war, we all felt it.
Mike Tuttle" Cavalier 17"
May 31, 2012
I was in Charlie Troop with John his nickname was “Whimmpy” after the cartoon character. He, John Jelich and Gary Mathis were my best friends we all flew Scouts together They are all gone now. I love and miss them greatly But thier memory will never fade. They were my brothers and they were the best.
Hugh Mills
January 5, 2013
I attended Armor OCS and flight school with John. Like him I flew scouts but with D Troop 1/4 Cavalry, 1st Infantry Division. He was a good soldier and a friend. I still miss him. He was one of three classmates of E-1 OC Brigade who perished in the war.
Hugh Mills
LTC retired USA
Kansas City MO
patrickbieneman
January 5, 2013
Hugh,
Thank you for your comments. It is comments like yours that help me protray these men for what they really are; Heroes and Human beings. They are not just names on the Wall.
Pat
Ellen (Hansen) Guernsey
March 23, 2013
How lovely to happen upon this and see that my brother is still remembered by classmates, friends and fellow soldiers. My sister and I talk sometimes about how we miss him and how we wish we could have known him through the years. Sometimes it seems like yesterday. Thank you all for remembering John.
patrickbieneman
March 24, 2013
Ellen,
Is Jennifer Sinclair your daughter or niece? Very soon she will be in contact with several crew members who flew with John. If you wish I could put them in contact with you. There is no doubt that John was more than just well respected by his fellow Troopers. John will always be honored on site. He is one of out fallen heroes.
Ellen (Hansen) Guernsey
March 24, 2013
Jennifer is my niece and an amazing person. She is very social, I am very shy. I will let her lead the way. Thank you for honoring John, it is a wonderful thing that you do.
patrickbieneman
March 24, 2013
Ellen,
The honor is all mine.
Sandra Hansen Brownlee
March 28, 2013
I am John’s sister, Sandra. I agree with Ellen that it is a joy to read stories from people who knew John. He was indeed good on the trumpet! I remember him playing Stormy Weather, gives me goosebumps when I hear it to this day. He’s been gone over 40 years, and I sill miss him so much. Thank you so much for your site.
And, for the record, may I say that my mom never taught in a college, and she was not mean. She would never have referred to kids as idiots … knuckleheads, maybe … She was a wonderful , compassionate woman, and a great teacher.
patrickbieneman
March 29, 2013
Sandra, I am more than sure that your mother was a wonderful lady. I did not know her but from John to you to Ellen to Jennifer it is easy to tell that only a good Mother could raise such wonderful children. I said Jennifer because she is of the same mold as you and this is passed down from mother to daughter to granddaughter.
John was very good man. He was more than just well respected by the men he served with. Thank you for your comment. If you have a story about John and would like to share it please send me an email at pcbnamin@verizon.net and I will include it in my post about John.
Pat
Steve Irving
July 15, 2016
I saw the goodness in Grace’s heart. She had a remarkable calmness. Opening her desk drawer one day she retrieved a snake, and pulling it up Grace said ” Mike is this yours? Please take it outside for some fresh air!” There was another time one of her students just didn’t get the math and drew instead, Grace noticed, tried to encourage him, and ended up saying “If this is your talent, then work on it”, and then she gave him more paper to do his art work.
John had that kind of caring in his heart. I truly believe that is why he answered the call to duty.