Mike Havranek, a blue-eyed
19-year-old from Missoula was assigned a reconnaissance mission in Quang Tri Province, where some of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam War had begun to unfold.
Thrilled to follow his family's tradition in the Marines, Havranek went to war, leaving behind his parents, three brothers, a sister and a girlfriend.
Gut instinct, the hard punch of reality or a premonition? No one knows for sure what prompted Havranek to write home to his parents and siblings, but the ever-proud Marine warned them of the mission's danger and virtual certainty of failure.
“We've been shot out of that area for three days in a row,” he said. “We're going to die.”
It would be Havranek's last letter home.
During the flyover, a ground attack to the tail rotor blew the helicopter out of the sky. The machine and its crew crashed in flames on a lush hillside.
Fighting in the region had only begun to escalate and years after the war ended in 1975, historians would declare the province as the place where the heaviest bombing campaign in the history of the world occurred.
Havranek and his fellow crew members on the ill-fated helicopter mission were presumed dead; their bodies were not recovered.
But they were never forgotten.
Mike Havranek's younger brother, Don, took the Marine's oath “Semper Fi” - “Always Faithful” - to heart, and for the past 38 years has dedicated his life to finding Mike's remains.
“I'm a Marine, my father was a Marine, Mike was a Marine,” said Don, who lives in Washington. “Semper Fi means always faithful, but it also means never leave somebody behind.”
With guarded hearts, Don and brother Jim Havranek believe their 38-year hunt for their missing brother may be over.
In 1998, the remains of American troops were found on an overgrown hillside in Quang Tri Province, where Mike's helicopter crashed. The remains were eventually handed over to the Marine Corps.
Through DNA testing, two men from Mike's crew were positively identified, and Marine Corps officials want the Havranek brothers to give DNA samples to help identify what could be Mike's remains.
“We're pretty confident they have found him,” said Jim Havranek, who lives in Missoula. “We don't have Mike yet, but it's the closest we've gotten to bringing him home.”
In 2001, armed with global positioning satellite systems, coordinates of the crash and joined by Ed Delezen, a fellow Marine who served with Mike, Don traveled to the place where his brother's helicopter was shot down. While he felt better after seeing the area, which still bears deep scars of war, Don said he returned home knowing his mission was not completed.
A few years ago, a strange twist of fate helped return Mike's dog tags to his brothers and kept them hoping for more. An American couple found the tags in a market during their travels through Vietnam.
“One day this guy calls me and asks, ‘Are you a relation to Michael Havranek?' ” Jim said. “And the guy says, ‘I think we have his dog tags.' ''
When the identification tags arrived, Don believed they were fake. With the help of Navy experts, the tags were verified as authentic and it was discerned that yes, indeed, they belonged to Mike.
The discovery came long after the Havraneks' father, Raymond, their brother, Bill, and sister, Raylene, had passed away. But the news provided their mother, Arlene, with comfort before she died a year ago.
“Now there's only two of us left,” Jim said. “But that's OK. At least we will be here to welcome him home - when we get him.”
Neither brother knows how long it will be before they get word about the DNA test results. They still have to give their samples, and what happens after that is very much up in the air, Jim said.
Don is hopeful that an upcoming March meeting between American and Vietnam officials will open the bureaucratic roadblocks and allow for excavation of the crash site and surrounding area.
“I figure the remains are within 500 meters of the crash site,” Don said. “And I want to be there when and if excavation happens, just to be sure of how it's done.
“This has consumed my whole life,” he said. “I want to make sure they are digging in the right spot - I have to know.”
The process, at this point, is in the hands of government officials, Don said. Hopefully, those involved with the recent discovery and identification of the helicopter crew will help bring the rest of the Marines home.
When Mike is found, he'll be returned to Missoula and laid to rest with his parents.
“If we pull that off, it's because of Donny,” Jim said, “he's been relentless in finding Mike.”
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