JUDGE, DARWIN LEE

Name: Darwin Lee Judge
Branch/Rank: United States Marine Corps/E3
Unit:
Date of Birth: 16 February 1956
Home City of Record: MARSHALTOWN IA
Date of Loss: 29 April 1975
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 104500 North 1064000 East
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Missions:
Other Personnel in Incident:
Refno:

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 2000.

REMARKS: 02/22/76 REMAINS RETURNED BY SRV

CACCF ARTILERY/ ROCKET BIEN HOA

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Vietnam hero finally honored

Darwin Judge, a courageous 19-year-old who died during the fall of Saigon,
will finally be honored Saturday for his heroic efforts in saving a fellow
Marine's daughter.

NBC's Bob Faw reports on how two men convinced the Marines to honor their
common hero.

By Bob Faw
NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa
April 28, 2000

Young Americans were paying the ultimate price in Vietnam right up until the
final days; and what added to the tragedy is that some were virtually lost
in the chaos and the eagerness of America to put Vietnam behind it. But one
young hero is finally getting the recognition he deserves.

DARWIN JUDGE was already a hero. There's a park named after him and a place
of honor at his high school.

"He was rock stable," said one of his former schoolteachers. "He was the
kind of guy America was built around."

An Eagle Scout, he was one of the last Marines to die in combat in Vietnam,
killed in action when he was just 19 as enemy shells slammed into Thanzhanut
Airbase 25 years ago tomorrow.

"If he'd stayed at the embassy like he was supposed to, be on the lookout,
he would have been alright," said his mother Ira.

In the chaos of those final days, his body wasn't found and returned home
until a year later.

In the bureaucratic confusion, he never got the purple heart nor burial with
honors he deserved.

"I love my country but I'm not so sure we have done what we should do to say
thank you" said Ken Locke, Judge's boyhood pal.

For nearly 25 years Locke has wanted to pay proper tribute to Darwin Judge.

"He was my hero; I wanted to be like him," Locke said.


A COMMON HERO

He was a hero for others, too. As Saigon fell and thousands tried to flee,
Marine Doug Potratz tried frantically to evacuate his three-year-old
daughter Becky, but could not until Judge intervened.

"He picked her up, put her on his back, piggyback style, and quick as a
bunny ran, ran out to the plane and put her on the plane," Potratz said.

Almost 25 years later, on a website dedicated to the fall of Saigon,
Potrata, now in California, wrote about what Judge had done.

Two thousand miles away in Indiana, Ken Locke read the account and contacted
Potratz.

Realizing they had a hero in common, the men, after countless phone calls
and letters, persuaded the Marines to give Judge a service, Saturday, with
full military honors.

It will bring some measure of comfort to Judge's parents.

"When you see so many young people take drugs and do terrible things, it
makes you a little proud to have somebody like Darwin," his father Henry
said.

Others are still thanking Darwin Judge 25 years later.

Remember that small child he rescued? She went on to graduate, with honors,
from the University of Southern California.

"If it wasn't for him, I'd probably still be there instead of here doing
what I'm doing now and being who I am," Becky said.

And for anyone who might argue that it's too late now to offer thanks,
Darwin Judge's mother has an answer: "It's not too late to thank them and
show your appreciation that they was over there to do what they was supposed
to do."

Twenty-five years later, Darwin Judge will get what he deserved and those he
touched will get what they need.

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