HARGROVE, OLIN JR.

Name: Olin Hargrove Jr.
Rank/Branch: E3/US Army
Unit: A Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division
Date of Birth: 21 January 1949
Home City of Record: Birmingham AL
Date of Loss: 17 October 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 112220N 1063239E (XT685575)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno: 0867
Other Personnel In Incident: Paul L. Fitzgerald (missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 October 1990 from one or more
of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated
by the P.O.W. NETWORK 2005.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: On October 17, 1967, SP4 Fitzgerald and PFC Hargrove were riflemen
on a search and destroy mission in South Vietnam. Their unit became engaged
in close, heavy contact and suffered heavy losses. Contact was broken and
their unit withdrew to set up a hasty defense in order to secure their dead
and wounded. At this time, SP4 Fitzgerald and PFC Hargrove were located on
the south side of the perimeter, between the main body and the enemy.

It is believed that Fitzgerald and Hargrove became disoriented and moved in
the wrong direction, as they were not seen to board the helicopters. One
witness stated that PFC Hargrove had already been wounded in the back. On
October 18 and 19, a company-sized unit searched the entire area, however,
no trace of the two was ever found.

Paul Fitzgerald and Olin Hargrove were classified missing in action. They
are among nearly 2500 Americans who disappeared in Southeast Asia. Since the
war ended, thousands of reports have been received which indicate that
hundreds of these missing men are actually still alive, captives of a
long-ago enemy. If Fitzgerald and Hargrove are among them, what must they
think of us?

Paul L. Fitzgerald, Jr. and Olin Hargrove, Jr. were both promoted to the
rank of Staff Sergeant during the period they were maintained Missing in
Action.

===================================

From: Lionspade@aol.com
Date: Wed, 4 May 2005 14:00:25 EDT
Subject: Re: Question re: Hargrove and Fitzgerald
To: info@pownetwork.org

Thank you so much, Mary and Chuck,

This is the most I've heard about their fates after all these years. Both
men were good people. Both were of average height, Hargrove African American
and Fitzgerald caucasian.

One of the funny memories I have took place in our battalion area within the
perimeter at Lai Khe.  We'd been out on a 3 day 'eagle flight' and choppered
back into Lai Khe to clean up and re-fit for the next mission.  Many of us
wound up at the Lion's Den, the EM 'club', more like a small hootch,
drinking our fair share of cold beers.

On the way back to our platoon hootches, several of the guys stumbled into
the trenches we had dug to fill sandbags to stack around our hootches.
Hargroves wound up in the trench.  He came up laughing and all was good with
the world for that moment.

Fitzgerald was on the quiet side as I recall.  However, it seems to me he
was from somewhere in the East and he would brag about his place back home.
He knew his stuff and had been in-country longer than me if memory serves
correctly.

Please feel free to post my comments on this other site. If it helps the
family, that would be a good thing. Thank you again for the quick reply-it
was greatly appreciated.   Bob Morris