Years after Vietnam, Chanhassen buries a hero
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Years after Vietnam, Chanhassen buries a hero
. By Dean Trippler
EDITOR
It was a sunny Friday in April of
1988.
The snow had melted, but it was
chilly. Spring looked to be around the
corner.
The little town of Chanhassen was
growing, moving ahead.
. But there was something from the
past that needed finishing. A memory of
a time of war, conflict and heroism had
to be laid to' rest.
. Twenty-~hree years prior, a 35-year-
. old Navy pilot, Lt.Commander Trent
Powers, winged his A-4E assault aircraft
off the deck of a United States Navy
aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin
into the haze of a Southeast Asian day.
At 9:45 a.m.. on Oct. 31, he led eight .
U.S. assault' aircraft in a combat assault
tnission thr:ough a North Vietnamese
valley laced 'with Communist army
units.
Over Ho Bac Province about 35 miles
northeast of Hanoi, his flight encountered
imti-alrcraft artillery tire from the ground.
Rounds peppered the sky, and Powers'
plane was hit.
According to the Pentagon, another
pilot saw Powers eject from his aircraft
and parachute to safety. The official
report indicated Powers waved saying
he was unharmed and an emergency
radio beacon was heard during his
descent.
. That was the last that was seen of
Trent Powers.
: Alice Powers, Trent Powers' mother,
had sent her SOl1 packages and letters,
but they were all returned. .
The end of the war came, and.. when
all of the U.S. prisoners of war were
released, Lt. Commander Powers was
still missing and presumed dead. In fact,
it he probably died from ground fire
shortly after he reached the North
Vietnamese soil.
. In 1987, Alice Powers learned that
i:emains taken from Vietnam in 1985
belonged to her son and five other
aviators missing in action. The report at
that time was that the u.s. Army's
Ce~tral Identification Laboratory in
. Hawaii was unsuccessful in identifying
the remains for two years after they
were brought back to the United States,
. .thus the time lag.
. The irony of Powers' being shot
down was that his mission on Oct. 31,
1965, was to have been his last over
North Vietnam. His cousin, Lois
.. STAFf PHOTOBV DEAN TRlPPLER
The last resting place of Lt. Commander Trent Powers is at the Pioneer. Cemetery in Chanhassen near the graves of
his grandparents.
O'Dowd, said that Powers was to have
been transferred to Europe immediately
after his ill-fated flight.
"It was very eerie when I heard about
that,". she said.
O'Dowd remembers that Powers was
a generous man. She recalled that several
years later, after she was married and
Powers was listed as missing in action,
she received a package at her home one
day. It was a wedding present that
Powers had bought for her in Japan.
His mother, Alice, had kept it, waiting
for the day when Powers would come
hom~ a~d be able to present. it to his
cousm m person.
But that time never came.
Alice Powers, who has since died,
said in a Minneapolis Star. Tribune story
in February of 1988 that it was a rdief
to finally know the fate of her son.
''We know that it happened, that he
died. We won't be wondering all the .
time, and that means a great deal to the
entire family," she was quoted as saying.
"I really don't see how it could be
otherwise. And I would rather have
news that he was gone than that he had
been held prisoner and tortured."
The decision was made to bury
..Powers in a grave next to his grandpar-
ents here in Chanhassen's Pioneer
Cemete~y.
Some 35 people attended the small
funeral, complete with. full military
honors and a 21-gun salute.
One of the men attendIng the funeral
was Jim Hesselgravewhc wore a .
bracelet with Powers' name on it, a
commemoration of those who were
listed as missing in action in the Viet-
nam War. He had worn that braCelet
. ... ,
for 12 years. .z
"I don't show up for theS~ much," ....
Hesselgrave said in a Star Tribu~ story.
after the funeral service. "Mer ~ years~
I had to come and say goodbyem . ...
someone I didn't reallYkn~"""I;'. ...
And on April 15, 1988;tt~S. - vy Lt.
Commander Trent Richacci.po. 's WllS
finally home, for good. .. .. .
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