HAROLD GEORGE BENNETT

Arkansas post office named for slain POW

Perryville remembers GI’s heroism in Vietnam

Marine veteran John Smallwood (right) of Jacksonville congratulates Dick Bennett, Harold Bennett’s brother, at Monday’s dedication ceremony at Perryville High School for the Harold George Bennett Post Office. Laura Vaught, Bennett’s sister, stands next to U.S. Rep. French Hill.
Marine veteran John Smallwood (right) of Jacksonville congratulates Dick Bennett, Harold Bennett’s brother, at Monday’s dedication ceremony at Perryville High School for the Harold George Bennett Post Office. Laura Vaught, Bennett’s sister, stands next to U.S. Rep. French Hill.

PERRYVILLE -- Laura Vaught rarely visits her local post office, but she'll drop in from time to time after it's renamed.

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Dick Bennett, Peggy Williams (center) and Laura Vaught visit Monday at Perryville High School before the ceremony naming the town post office after their late brother, Harold George Bennett, who was executed by the Viet Cong in 1965 after three escape attempts. “He’s a hero,” Williams said. “What more can a man give than his life?”

Soon the small, brick federal building off Perryville's main strip will bear her brother's name.

Perryville Post Office 72126 will become the Harold George Bennett Post Office, honoring the first American prisoner of war killed during the Vietnam War -- a young man from Perryville.

Inside the gym Monday at Perryville High School, a U.S. congressman and a packed gymnasium remembered Bennett's overseas heroism.

Vaught's thoughts recently drifted to her wedding day. It was one of the last moments she shared with her older brother, who had taken on her late father's role.

"He gave me away at my wedding," she said, her eyes shining and her lips quivering. "He was very protective. He was wonderful."

Bennett died shortly after the wedding. He was 24, and to date the whereabouts of his remains is unknown.

It took an act of Congress and several years to affix Bennett's name to the post office. It's a rare honor, with only a handful of post offices in Arkansas dedicated to a person, said David Camp, the state district manager for U.S. Postal Service.

A small, rectangular, black plaque will be placed on the post office's outer wall in the coming days. Post offices in Rose Bud, Little Rock and Hot Springs also honor former service members.

Arkansas Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, during his stint in Congress, started the effort to honor Bennett in 2014, but his bill stalled in the U.S. Senate. U.S. Rep. French Hill, a Republican from Little Rock, revived the measure this year, and the bill cleared both chambers after U.S. Sen. John Boozman, a Republican from Rogers, sponsored a companion bill in the Senate.

"It's 50 years in the making and 50 years overdue," Hill said at Monday's ceremony. "We need American heroes. For me, it's never too late to do something we should have done a long time ago."

Only three of Bennett's nine siblings are still living. Peggy Williams of Perryville, Dick Bennett of Bigelow and Vaught were all on hand at Monday's dedication. They each refer to him as "Harold-George" as if it were one word.

Bennett's family traces its military service to the Revolutionary War. Bennett's grandfather fought for the Union during the Civil war, his father served in World War I, and he had brothers in each conflict from World War II to Vietnam.

Bennett, a Thornburg native, enlisted in the Army in 1957 and attended basic training at Fort Chaffee. He served in the infantry for the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions, earning Master Parachute Wings and an Expert Infantry Badge.

He became an Army Ranger in 1963 and flew to South Vietnam the next year as an adviser to the 33rd Vietnamese Ranger Battalion.

The Viet Cong captured Bennett and his radio operator Dec. 29, 1964. They had dropped into the South Vietnamese village of Binh Gia as the Viet Cong attacked the village of North Vietnamese refugees.

Twice, Bennett called off American rescue efforts. Enemy troops surrounded him, and he didn't want anyone to die rescuing him.

Dick Bennett was in the Dominican Republic on orders when the telegram came; Vaught and Williams were stateside.

Their brother was a prisoner of war.

The next 179 days passed slowly as their brother's fate lay with the Viet Cong. Helpless but hopeful, they waited.

"It was a nightmare," Williams said. "We hoped they'd bring him back."

Their hopes were dashed in June 1965. After three escape attempts, their brother was executed by the Viet Cong.

"He's a hero," Williams said. "What more can a man give than his life?"

Word of Bennett's slaying made his brother Dick all the more eager to go to Vietnam. However, he was barred from being sent to a combat zone because someone in his family had already been killed in action. So Dick Bennett grabbed $20, a large sum for a soldier in the 1960s, and bribed an Army clerk to change his status to allow for combat deployment.

He served 2½ tours in Vietnam.

"I wanted to go because I didn't like that trash they did to my brother," he said.

The U.S. State Department at the time called Bennett's death a "wanton act of murder," and the Army posthumously promoted him to staff sergeant a month later.

In 2004, the Army inducted Bennett into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame at Fort Benning, Ga. In 2010, his family received the Silver Star on his behalf -- the third-highest combat decoration. His decorations now comprise the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, the Prisoner of War Medal, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the Purple Heart, the Silver Star and a namesake post office.

Bennett would have turned 76 on Sunday, the day before the ceremony at Perryville High School.

When people pass the post office nestled in the central Arkansas town of about 1,500, they'll remember Bennett's sacrifice, Hill said Monday.

Williams will remember a fun-loving uncle to her children.

Dick Bennett will remember a fellow soldier who wrote him every day of boot camp.

Vaught will remember the man who walked her down the aisle.

They'll all remember a hero.

Metro on 10/18/2016

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