Gunnery Sgt. Gary Campbell Remembers Hill 362 Fallen

Orem veteran promises that Vietnam vets 'will not be forgotten'
Herald Extra
Cathy Allred Daily Herald
September 27, 2015

Gunnery Sgt. Gary Campbell doesn't hesitate to talk about the Vietnam War, because of a promise he made to the dead and dying in the 1960s – they will not be forgotten.

Gary Campbell a Vietnam Veteran who served in the Marines, photographed in Orem on Thursday, September 3, 2015. India Company, the 180-man unit that Campbell was in, sustained 34 dead and 80 wounded when they were ambushed by the enemy during Operation Hastings in 1966. Campbell and many others in his company received the Purple Heart and numerous other awards of valor. JIM MCAULEY, Special to the Daily Herald

His words paint a vivid and stark story against the background of the politics at the time and the humid hot jungles of the country.

“The four stories I tell are the ones that are the most important to me, because they are about my buddies, my men that didn’t come home,” Campbell said.

His voice trembled as he showed an old photo of India Company. The soldiers in the photo are standing on bleachers to get every uniformed Marine in the frame.

“This is my company,” he said. “This picture was taken on Okinawa before we went to Vietnam. Of these people, and there are 180 of them here, troops, Marines; 34 died while I was in Vietnam and over 80 of us was wounded.”

By the time he was 23, the North Vietnamese Army, B Division, was sent to infiltrate the south. Campbell’s battalion was ordered to stop the action. The campaign was called Operation Hastings.

Called India Company, his Marines were sent to take a “rockpile” named Hill 362. The Marines won the battle for Hill 362 on July 24, 1966, but at a price.
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As you'll read in this report going back to 2008, he hasn't forgotten them.

Vietnam veterans traveling back to battlefield to honor comrades
KSL News
Jed Boal reporting
Posted Apr 23rd, 2008

In a few days, a Vietnam War veteran from Utah will head off on a mission of honor four decades delayed. Gary Campbell and nine fellow Marines will travel back to the battlefield where they lost nearly three dozen comrades.

July 24, 1966 was a holiday at home in Utah, but a terrifying battle for Gary Campbell and his fellow Marines on Hill 362 in Vietnam. India Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines was on an extended search-and-destroy mission.

The Marines planned to take control of Hill 362 for a radio relay tower, but it turned into a fierce fight with the North Vietnamese. "Absolutely a defining point in your life. For the last 40 years I think about it. It's always there," Campbell said.

Campbell says, "You go through something like this with people, I was with them less than a year, but they're like my brothers."

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