By David Fleet

Editor

Groveland Twp.

-Melvin L. McArthur was just 21-years-old when he died from a roadside mine blast in Vietnam more than 45 years ago.

On Aug. 8, 1968, McArthur was killed in action when the truck he was driving hit a land mine near Quang Ngal on a return trip from a mission to his command post at Chu Lai, north of Saigon and then the capital city of South Vietnam. The 1966 graduate of Waterford Kettering High School and former Ortonville resident was to have been discharged from the Army in only three months.

He received a Purple Heart and his name is now among 58,307 engraved on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C.; however, due to an oversight McArthur’s name was omitted from the Veteran’s Monument Wall at the Ortonville Cemetery.

“We wanted to right that wrong,” said Dennis Hoffman, Ortonville VFW Post 582 commander. “Melvin was a good friend and a classmate of mine in Ortonville for many years.”

Hoffman realized the oversight earlier this year.

“We had a 50-year Brandon High School class reunion this past summer,” he said. “Melvin was on the high school class roster and listed as KIA in Vietnam. I started digging into why he was not on the wall at the Ortonville Cemetery.”

Hoffman said that McArthur attended the Ortonville schools from grade school through the tenth grade—then moved to the Waterford area with his parents.

“I guess we kind of lost track of him after that,” he said. “I am sorry that his parents aren’t here to see their son honored. He gave his life for this country.”

Earlier this fall Hoffman and VFW Quartermaster Loyd Case along with the assistance of Roy Langolf of Village Funeral Home, Ortonville coordinated the engraving of Melvin L. McArthur’s name on the stone wall in the Ortonville Cemetery. The Ortonville VFW funded the $284 cost for the project.

According to a newspaper article, McArthur was drafted in November 1966 and serving with Company C, 39th Engineer Battalion, 18th Engineer Brigade, and had been in Vietnam since Dec.11, 1967. He received his basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. The story also included an interview with Melvin’s father.

“We had sent Mel a tape recorder July 23 (1968),” said his father. “In his first message to us Saturday he seemed to be in real good spirits. If it had not been for the news we received the next day, the message would have been quite encouraging.”

“Mel was a good boy and he looked forward to coming home, marrying his girlfriend, and settling down. I’m not bitter about his death, but it just seems we are losing so many good men in Vietnam. My son was the type of boy who fitted in and accepted things. He was not happy about going to Vietnam, but he accepted it like a man.”

Prior to entering the service, Spec. 4 McArthur was employed by Pontiac Motors Divison.