BENNEFELD, STEVEN HENRY
Name: Steven Henry Bennefeld
Rank/Branch: United States Marine Corps/E3
Unit: G/2/9/3 MAR DIV
Date of Birth: 24 December 1947, Girard, KS
Home City of Record: GIRARD KS
Date of Loss: 29 July 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 165647 North 1065736 East
Status (in 1973): Killed in Action/Body Not Recovered
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident:
Refno: 0775
Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw
data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA
families, published sources, interviews and CACCF = Combined Action
Combat Casualty File. Updated with information provided through Chuck
Hoagland, 1998.
REMARKS: CACCF GUNSHOT OR SMALL ARMS FIRE QUANG TRI
MOS 0311
--------------------------------
The Girard Press (Girard, Kansas)
Special Edition, April 13 thru 19th
"The Vietnam Moving Wall Memorial"
Girard's Bennefeld family reflects on lost son
By: John Spurling
One of Girard's own, PFC Steven Bennefeld's name is on The Vietnam Wall.
Bennefeld was possibly killed by enemy gun fire in the vicinity of Quang
Tri, The Republic of Vietnam. His body was never recovered. His name is on
the memorial located on panel 24 east line number 15.
A memorial service for Steve was held August 13, 1967 at the Trinity
Lutheran Church, Girard. Steve was born December 24, 1947 in Girard.
Baptized March 28, 1948, in Zion Lutheran Church, Brazilton. Confirmed in
Trinity Lutheran Church, Girard, May 20, 1962. Graduated from Girard High
school 1966. Enlisted in Marine Corps, September 8, 1966. Received basic
training in San Diego, California. Shipped overseas with 3rd Platoon, G
Company, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marine Division, February 20, 1967.
Steve was a happy-go-lucky, tall, lanky, blonde headed kid around town.
During his younglife on earth, Steve made many friends. He played basketball
in High School. He worked at the Producers Coop Station in Girard for
awhile. Steve enjoyed life and everything in it, when he laughed it was
with great enthusiasm and it was often.
Steve was granted furlough and came home to be with his family at Christmas
time in 1966. It was the last time the family saw him.
It was a very sad day indeed when two military men knocked on the door of
the Bennefeld home. Their message was brief and to the point when they
informed Steve's Mother, Esther, who was home alone at the time that her son
had been killed on July 29th in a land so far away and in a land the family
hardly knew anything about.
Left behind to mourn his death were his parents, brother Randy and a sister
Donna. A host of relatives and friends. Even though the years have past,
time has not, and may never erase the dreadful word "why".
To lose a child can be very devastating to a parent, to lose one and not
know the circumstances could be a burden almost to great to bear. Through
the years the Bennefelds have never lost their trust in "God". They have
been able to hide their heartaches behind a smile for they know someday the
family will understand.
Steve's letters from "Nam" have been placed In a special box and kept as a
memento. The box of letters is a special bond of love between them that
cannot be broken. Each letter is a personal gift and. testimony of faith
and love for his family.,
Steve's name is engraved in granite on the Vietnam Wall in Washington D.C.
along with more than 58,000 young Americans who give their lives for their
country. The replica of the Wall will be in Girard, Kansas April 13 to the
19th, 1994. Look for Steve's name in panel 24 East, line number 15.
Steve, in his letters home was very proud to be given the opportunity to
serve his country. He apparently had no regrets for all the rioting and
protesting transpiring on the home front. Even though him and his buddies
had no support from some of his fellow Americans he never lost faith.
A stone for Steve has been placed in the Brazilton Lutheran Cemetery.
Beside Steve's name on the wall is a small pound sign which tells the world
he is still missing and the odds of being found now are very remote. As the
Bennefeld family, for the first time stands before the black wall, their
fingers tracing softly over the name of their son, the memories of life
could once again flood across the meadows of their mind.
A Letter From "Nam"
This letter, in part, from PFC Steven Bennefeld to his parents, Henry and
Esther Bennefeld, 315 W Walnut, Girard was written July 17th 1967. Just 12
days later, July 19th, Steve was apparently killed by enemy gun fire in the
vicinity of Quang Tri, Republic Of Vietnam. His body was never recovered.
"July 17th, Viet Nam
Mom & Dad
Hi! Steve How's everything?
Well here it is another day. Today is Sunday believe it or not, usually
Sunday slips by without me realizing what day it is. I even attended
Services today, first Church Services I've gone to for quite awhile.
Usually we are in the field or to busy to go. Sure be glad to get back to
the states and attend regular church. How's everything around our church
lately, any new members?
Tomorrow we, are supposed to move again but none knows where to go, so we
might stay here awhile. Tomorrow will tell.
So Shane had a birthday. He's a Big 2 years old. I sure wish I could see
him, I bet he's a living Doll. He won't even know me when I get home.
Is anyone building any new businesses or building around town.
Well it's getting dark so guess I'll close.
Love
Your Son,
Steve
---------------
The Morning Sun
Pittsburg, Kansas
April 11, 1994
In addition to Steven Bennefeld, there are other Crawford County families
sharing the same kind of loss as the Bennefelds.
Those Crawford County Vietnam veterans who lost their lives, in addition to
Steve, include Daniel Scott Mueller, HM-3, Maj. Walter W. Martin, Cpl.
Michael J. Sullivan, Sgt. Derrel K. Dickey and John P. McDermott, BM-2.
Bennefelds say Vietnam memories hard to forget
Girard family lost son in Vietnam
By NEAL McCHRISTY Morning Sun Staff Writer
The letter has the faded blue figures of Marines raising the flag at Iwo
Jima in one corner. Scrawled across the paper, a 10 year-old Marine wrote
his parents in Girard:
"When I get out of the Marines in two and one-half years, I'm going
on my own, I think. You have another important job -- that's to
raise another son.
"Randy is only in the seventh grade, but that's just the age that
he starts checking out everything, so if you are the same to him as
you were to me, I'd be pleased. My chief desire is to have a brother
that I can be proud of."
Steven H. Bennefeld, a youth called "polar bear" in the U.S. Marines for his
blond crown of hair, wrote that letter 20 days from being shipped to
Vietnam.
It was a letter that his mother, Esther, read, but she kept it folded in
safekeeping for over 25 years until recently.
The young Marine was reported missing in action July 29, 1967. His mother
knew, she said, before she got word about Steve. She didn't want to share
how.
The name of this teenager and over 58,000 others who lost their lives in
Vietnam, are chiseled in smooth, black granite on the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial in Washington.
And Steve Bennefeld's name, in addition to being the namesake tor the Steven
H. Bennefeld VFW Post No. 7479, Girard, will be on the "Moving Wall" replica
of that Memorial that arrives in Girard this week.
Henry "Dick" Bennefeld, Steve's father, says attending the ceremonies will
be difficult. Although they've learned to live with the loss of their son,
it will always hurt, Esther says.
The Girard couple flips through the album that contains the mementoes of
their son.
Flip - He's a tow-headed youngster on the front step at their rural Healer
home. He had scarlet fever when less than 2 years old, Esther said. His
sister, Debra, died of leukemia in 1957, when Steve was about 10.
Flip - The family moved to Girard in 1956. A teenager as his older sister,
Donna, is graduating in one photograph. Steve followed her two years later
in 1966.
Flip - The last page, much of the bottom of it blank. There's a photograph
of the Christmas visit of the tall, lanky Marine to his home to see his
family. In the middle is his younger brother, Randy, who now works at
Wal-Mart in Pittsburg.
Among the half-page collage, there's a photo of Steven, 6' 3", sitting atop
a sandbag bunker emplacement with the everpresent bright smile on the tanned
young face below the blond hair. Another shows him in uniform. Unlike many
of the other photos, he has an uncharacteristic serious look.
Military family
Steve had the loyalty that the Marine motto, "Semper Fidelis" ("always
faithful") encourages in its ranks. Esther said he "loved the service. He
was proud to be in the service."
It was in the family. The elder Bennefeld was also in the service in the
South Pacific during World War 11, and Esther and Henry were married in
1945.
They found out about the battle that killed their son, in time. It came
through an unlikely visit from another person in his company. Initially the
messenger of what happened, Larry Beena, Normal, Ill., "was afraid to come
to our door," said Esther.
Beena told the Bennefelds that Steve had stood up during a battle, saying he
was going to take on the enemy himself, and had been killed. Said Esther:
"That sounds like him."
Beena was wounded, shot and taken to Okinawa to recuperate after, the
battle, a lone survivor of the company. He's been back to visit the
Bennefelds twice since they initially met.
Since Esther knew that the tribute to their son was approaching, she took
out the letters she had not read for almost 27 years. She unfolded them
again to read the haunting words written miles and years away. "I got about
six or eight letters from Steve," she said. "Believe it or not, they hadn't
been read in all these years." It has helped, she said, "to read a few
letters, and I think that's good."
The "Moving Wall" awakened the community interest in their son. The couple
says they'll get through reliving their memories of him, but it won't be
easy.
The Memorial Wall and the "Moving Wall" brings back poignant memories and
emotion on the part of most who see it. Whether the Persian Gulf War
helped the United States recover its dignity or not - as so many say it did
- the Vietnam War continues to be an everlasting memory of most of the
children of the '60s and mid '70s.
There were those who stayed behind who wait, to see if their loved ones were
going to be called. There were pins on divided Vietnam wall maps college
dormitories, showing those who left. Sometimes, they went away and didn't
come back. Sometimes, when they returned, they had changed in indiscernible
ways. There were always wounds, it seemed, whether they showed or not -
whether they shared them or not.
Class tribute
There will be a tribute to Steven H. Bennefeld Sunday, April 17, by his
Girard High School classmates in the class of '66. Phil Umphenour, a
Vietnam veteran from Joplin, will bring his experiences to the ceremony and
has helped with Steve's eulogy.
"I'm sure it will be a very moving and special time for all of us," wrote
Dr. Bill Vietti, president of the class of 1966, to his classmates recently
when he asked them to attend.
There were 95 students in the GHS class of 1966. When the class had its
25-year reunion in 1991, Vietti said, "I looked though the newspaper for
about a month before we graduated, and heck, it gives you goose bumps, the
things that were going on at that time. There were awful things going on at
that time."
Cheryl Breneman, another '66 graduate, counted 15 from the class in the
service during the Vietnam War. She said she saw Steve's name on the
replica of "The Wall" that is in Honolulu.
The class will place a grapevine wreath with the school colors and a photo
of Steve, she said, which as with all the artifacts, is transported to a
special museum in San Jose, Calif.
Like the Bennefelds, who carry around images in their hearts of their son,
his classmates do, too.
Steve was "a neat kid," said Vietti. "He was on the basketball team and was
the center on the team."
"Tall, blond and lanky and full of fun," Breneman said. "He always had a
smile and was just a good kid."
For those who attended college, like Vietti and Breneman, the memorial to
Vietnam servicemen brings back memories of a special rite of passage for
their generation. For Vietti, seeing Steve's name on "The Wall" in
Washington was an emotional experience, he wrote his classmates.
"The only one I've seen is this 'Moving Wall,"' said Larry Salzman, Girard,
who is the commander of the Steven H. Bennefeld VFW Post No. 7479. "I don't
know. It just kind of captures you."
He saw the, "Moving Wall" when it was in Carthage, Mo. Like many other
veterans, he kept his Vietnam experiences to himself, he said, and hasn't
shared many of them with his family. The two tours of Vietnam remained in
his memorial.
Now, the memorial has helped veterans and those of the era who were in "the
States" go through a bittersweet cleansing.
"Ever since I went to see it two years ago - it's helped," Salzman said.
And had he not gone to see the memorial in Carthage, Salzman said he doubted
he would have wanted the "Moving Wall" to be in Girard. But since word came
in January that it would arrive, it has spurred a legion of local volunteers
to help with the effort.
And the young Marine who died in Vietnam that July in 1967 has a lot to do
with the local community involvement.
"A lot of it is probably because of the Bennefelds and Steve," Salzman said.
"This is the first time that anybody had a chance to do anything for Steve."
---------------
The Morning Sun
Pittsburg, Kansas
April 18th, 1994
Classmates remember Bennefeld
Some cling to hope that Girard native somehow still alive
By NIKKI PATRICK
Morning Sun Family Living Editor
GIRARD - It was one of the saddest class reunions in history as members of
the Girard High School class of 1966 gathered Sunday at the Moving Wall in
Girard to honor classmate Steven Bennefeld.
His name is located on panel 24 (east) of the traveling monument.
"I'm seeing classmates I haven't seen in 25 years, but it's a shame I have
to see them under these circumstances," said Linda Potter of Pittsburg.
She said the 103 members of the class of 1966 were close. "We all hung out
together,,, Potter said. "Steve was a very good boy . He was young and in
love with the thought of going to war, and he didn't come back."
First speaker of the afternoon was Bill Slavin, a member of the class of
1965 who was also a close friend of Bennefeld's. Despite near-summer
temperatures, Slavin wore his full dress Marine uniform.
"It's the least I could do to honor Steve," he said.
Slavin spent 14 months in Vietnam. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps in April
of 1966, and after his training at Camp Pendleton, came home on leave.
"I went into Nick's Drive-In, and the first person I ran into was Steve."
he said. "I told him that I had orders for Vietnam. He said he wanted to
join the Marines and go with him. I told him I had a bad feeling about
this."
His feelings were justified. "On July 29, 1967, our unit was alerted that
another Marin unit was in trouble, and we were to help, Slavin said. "I
didn't know then that it was Steve's unit. The North Vietnamese hardcore -
the best men they had - had hit them."
Bennefeld was hit in the upper chest, then the North Vietnamese overran the
unit.
"I want you to know that what happened to Steve did not go unavenged,"
Slavin said. "We went in with 35 men, and five of us came out. I've got a
lot of names over on that wall."
But just what did happen to Bennefeld has never been determined. When the
area, in the vicinity of Quang Tri, was cleaned up, Bennefeld was not there.
This gives Slavin a shred of hope.
"The North Vietnamese did not take prisoners that were dead," he said. "I
think, or I want to think, that Steve is alive. My wife and I wear his POW
bracelet."
Since coming home, Slavin has been active in Veterans of Foreign Wars.
"Whenever I put this uniform on and do memorial services, Steve is always
with me," he said.
He has also served as a district POW/MIA chairman. He has been given access
to some declassified CIA documents, and he is convinced that "Vietnam
veterans were wronged, were lied to. There are many things this government
tries to cover up."
He held up one document for the crowd to see. "It's blacked out in places,"
he pointed out. "If they're not hiding something, why is it blacked out?"
Slavin believes Americans may still be held by the Vietnamese "and if I were
asked tomorrow to go back there and bring them home, I'd go. And I know
there would be plenty of other men going beside me, or ahead of me."
Phil Umphenour of Joplin, Mo., also shared memories of his classmate. "We
first met on a vacant lot on Water Street," he said. "I was 8 or 9, and
Steve was the same. We were going on a trail through the lot. He was the
biggest kid I'd ever seen. His hair was so blond and he was so noisy. We
played in the same ditch - we caught crawdads together."
Umphenour served in the U.S. Navy as a hospital corpsman, spending 16 months
in Vietnam.
The last time he saw Bennefeld was, like their first meeting, by
coincidence. "I was in Oceanside, Calif., going down the street, and he was
on the other side of the street," Umphenour said. "I went over and said,
"Benny, what are you doing here?' We were too young to drink beer in
California, so we went to see a movie."
He still remembers the film. It was the classic 1939 "Beau Geste," starring
Gary Cooper in a story about the Foreign Legion and battles in the desert.
Then the two friends walked around, looked at the ocean and rode to their
camps, saying goodbye and wishing each other luck.
Umphenour was in Vietnam when Bennefeld was killed or captured "but I didn't
know about it until I got back home. It s a guiltful situation. It's hard
to understand you have friends and now they're gone. You never make friends
like that again."
He has his own memories of Vietnam, of working in hospitals swamped with
casualties from the Tet offensive. "We turned the Vietnamese back so hard
that if they had a wall it'd be five times as long as that one over there,"
Umphenour said. "It set them back two years and gave us time to get back."
While many veterans feel bitterness over the anti-war demonstrations that
were going on at the time of the Vietnam war, Umphenour believes this
sentiment helped end U.S. involvement in the conflict.
"It's you people back home who got us back, -and I'm glad of it," he said.
Tom Murnane can't remember the first time he met Steve Bennefeld. "He's the
first person other than family members that I have any recollection of," he
said. "This would be from my third birthday, maybe before."
Murnane, who was a platoon sergeant, said he is not a "classic Vietnam
veteran. I went kicking and screaming. I don't know why to this day we
were there, but I did the best I could."
He said that he escaped "the drugs, alcoholism, night sweats, flashbacks and
schizophrenia" that afflicted some veterans. But he has strong feelings
about the war nonetheless.
He worked many years as a tour bus driver, and made 20 trips to Washington,
D.C. "I was never going to see the wall, but I did, many times," he said.
"I took people and helped them find names on the wall. I took some and
helped them find graves at Arlington National Cemetery."
Murnane said his feelings began to change in 1980, when some Vietnamese
"boat people" fled their country and came to the United States and Canada.
"I was on Prince Edward Island, when a Canadian man in a suit came in,
followed by 20 of the most scared Vietnam people I had ever seen," he said.
The Canadian bought the re fugees hamburgers and fries. Murnane talked with
him, asking "Why do we need these people here?"
"They're refugees," was the answer.
The Canadian knew no Vietnamese, and the refugees spoke no English, so
Murnane offered to talk with them. "I basically told them that the Canadian
was a number one guy and they should do what he said," he said. "Their eyes
lit up and they asked me, 'You GI?' They wanted to know where I'd been and
some of them had heard of the place. Their lives changed right there, and I
think mine did, too. I did a lot of thinking after that."
After all, Murnane said, his own family included refugees from an Irish
potato famine, and other ancestors who had been forced out of Germany and
Russia for religious reasons.
"Now I think this country is on the way up," he said.
Dr. Bill Vietti, Chanute optometrist and class of 1966 president, served as
master of ceremonies for the event. "I'm the only non-veteran up here," he
said. "I thought I was pretty smart being in college those years, but now I
wish I'd gone to Vietnam with the others."
Use your Browser's BACK function to return to the PREVIOUS page