MOUNT VERNON — Mount Vernon resident Lowell Henthorn enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1965 and spent nearly two years in Vietnam before being wounded in action.
Members of the Knox County Quilt Guild honored two military veterans during Sunday service at the First Church of the Nazarene on Coshocton Avenue.
Guild members presented a Quilt of Valor to Lowell Henthorn, USMC and Army Chaplain Don Wilson.
This article profiles Henthorn’s service. Tomorrow, Knox Pages will profile Wilson’s service as an Army chaplain.
The Knox County Quilt Guild honored his military service on Sunday, presenting him with a Quilt of Valor during the morning service.
The quilt caught Henthorn by surprise.
“I really appreciate it, and I fully respect all of the work and time,” he said.
Henthorn enlisted in the Marines in 1965 but was on hold until he reported for duty in 1966.
After arriving at Camp Pendleton in April 1966, he completed several weeks each of demolition school, jungle warfare training and escape and evasion school.
“I knew right then it was not going to be a good deal,” he said. “From there I got my orders for WEST-PAC, which was Vietnam.”
A story of courage and resilience
Henthorn served in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967, arriving the summer of ’66.
“That was a memorable Christmas,” Henthorn said of Christmas 1966. “It was quite an eye-opener. You lose people and it’s not something you forget. All of us, we’d think, ‘Well, will that be me tomorrow?’ It’s pretty sobering.”
Henthorn was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, Lima Company, working as a demolition technician (MOS 0351).
“Anything with explosives… my main weapon was a LAW, light armament weapon, and an M14 (rifle),” he explained. “My general occupation in country was search-and-destroy missions.”
Henthorn carried three LAWs, which were similar to the bazookas of World War II. Made of fiberglass, they were much lighter than the WWII version, which Henthorn said required five men to carry.
His unit was highly mobile, often transported by Chinook helicopters without advance notice of their destination.
“We never knew till we got on the chopper. So it was always kind of a surprise,” Henthorn said.
He operated out of several bases, including Dong Ha and Phu Bai.
He was also in Con Thien — the northernmost U.S. base in Vietnam.
“I could see the North Vietnamese flag from our base camp… We were right on the line; we got mortars pretty frequently,” Henthorn recalled. “It was a hostile base; we had snipers snipe at us.”
While in Con Thien, Henthorn participated in Operation Hastings (July 15 to Aug. 3, 1966) and Operation Prairie (a six-month operation starting Aug. 3, 1966).
“It was bad. Prairie was right up near the DMZ. I don’t know if it was bad information or we underestimated them, but we would have been wiped out if we didn’t get help,” he said.
Returning home
Henthorn was wounded twice in a firefight on Feb. 28, 1967, during Operation Prairie. The first hit was a mortar round.
“We were all just trying to hold our own. One of my teammates, I could hear him hollering, and he was moaning really bad,” Henthorn said.
“I went out to get him and I got hit again and he got hit again. But I saved him.”
Unfortunately, 28 men were lost.
After being wounded, Henthorn went to Marble Mountain, a mobile Army surgical hospital (MASH) unit near Da Nang. He then flew on a C-34 to the hospital ship USS Repose.
“I was on it for about a month. They said, ‘You’re no longer fit for combat or marine duty, so you’re going to get a medical discharge,’” Henthorn said.
“I went back to Da Nang. They had a staging area, and they put me on a C-41, and I ended up at Great Lakes Naval Hospital.”
Henthorn was at Great Lakes for several months before being discharged in June 1967 as a Private First Class. He was promoted to Lance Corporal, but his captain was killed and unable to process the paperwork.
Henthorn reconnected with the teammate he saved in February while both were at Great Lakes.
After returning to Knox County, Henthorn spent the first year healing. After that, he got married and worked at Foote Foundry, Ariel Corporation and Rolls-Royce.
He retired from Rolls-Royce in 2014, several weeks before Siemens Energy bought the company.
Of his time in the military, Henthorn said, “I was just doing my job.”
As to what Memorial Day means to him, he said it is a memory of the ones who were lost.
“I think of the ones who were on the wall the day of my battle,” he said.
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