In Memory of ..... SSGT. Deland Dwight Zubke.
*** Deland was declared dead in 1978. A tombstone was brought to the cemetery, but the family has held no burial service.
*** Staff Sergeant Zubke was a member of Battery B, 7th Battalion, 15 Artillery Regiment, 52 Artillery Group. On March 1, 1971, he was a radio operator for an artillery forward observer team in South Vietnam, when his position was overrun by the enemy. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.
You may be gone, no longer living on this earth; but you will live on - in the memories of your family and friends. There will always be a part of you living in those who knew you. You will live on because we remember you!
DELAND DWIGHT ZUBKE - Army - SSGT - E6 1st Field Force
Deland Zubke enlisted in the Army shortly after graduating from high school in 1970.
On March 2, 1971, Mrs. Drusilla and her late husband, Gerald, received the news. "He, her son (Deland) was only there two months when he came up missing,"Zubke recalled.
Age: 26
Race: Caucasian
Date of Birth Oct 28, 1951
From: GRASSY BUTTE, ND
Religion: LUTHERAN & MISSOURI SYNOD
Marital Status: Single - Parents: Father, Gerald Zubke, Born April 18, 1926 and Died April 26, 1993 and Mother, Drusilla Zubke, 77(In March 26, 2014).
Mrs.Zubke has three sons, a daughter, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Brother, Denton.
***** WATFORD CITY, N.D. (AP) - A bracelet worn for a North Dakota soldier missing in Vietnam has brought two women together after more than two decades.
"There really are nice people in the world," said Drusilla Zubke, 77, after meeting Bonnie Barrett, 36, the keeper of her son's missing-in-action bracelet.....
Saturday, June 12, 2004
***** Its the little things!!
Denton
Brother
***** He Took My Place - I met Specialist Five Deland Zubke in January 1971 right after I returned from R&R in Australia. Deland had just arrived in Vietnam and was assigned to LZ Oasis where we worked together in the battery's fire direction center. LZ Oasis was a desolate, vegetation-free firebase in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in the IDrang River valley near the Cambodian border. With his easy going manner and
friendly personality, we quickly became close friends despite the relatively short period of time we had together. In February 1971, a fire support mission came down to our battery to provide a forward observer and radio telephone operator for a South Vietnamese infantry battalion. Since I was the senior fire direction specialist in B Btry, I was initially selected to serve as the RTO. But with almost 11 months in-country
I had short timer jitters and was somewhat reluctant to accept the hazardous mission. Without hesitation, Deland willingly volunteered to take my place on what would become his final mission. The ARVN battalion come under attack by a superior North Vietnamese force--a regiment of heavily armed regular infantry. Things got so desperate that the Americans called artillery fire on their own position in what was to become a futile attemplt to prevent the 66th NVA regiment from over running the ARVN battalion.
Deland was last seen aiming his 45 caliber pistol at the ARVN infantryman who was carrying the radio for him to prevent the ARVN from acting like his comrades and fleeing the battlefield. This action occurred 30 years ago to the day I first wrote this remembrance.
Deland's remains have never been recovered and to this day he is listed on the Vietnam Wall as missing in action. The forward observer, 1LT Walden, eventually made it back to friendly lines and was awarded the Silver Star for his courage under the most difficult combat conditions imaginable. And I'm sure then Specialist Five Zubke would have also been accorded that honor for his steadfast determination to hold the line at all costs against a greatly superior enemy force.
Moreover, Deland willingly placed himself in the dangerous mission by taking my place. I'm still in the military as an Air Force colonel, but I will never forget Deland and the favor he did which spared my life.
SP5 Zubke has long been a hero in my family and for 18 or so years now, I go to the Vietnam Wall and look for his name. And my son wore his POW/MIA braclet while attending West Point where he is now a senior. I just wish I had Deland's courage. I hope to someday visit his family and express my feelings of Deland and deep appreciation in person.
COL Ralph Liebhaber
His tour began on Mar 1, 1971
Casualty was on Oct 5, 1978
In KONTUM, SOUTH VIETNAM
Hostile, died while missing, GROUND CASUALTY
Body was not recovered
Panel 04W - Line 17
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
SP5 Zubke was serving as a radio operator with an artillery forward observer group assigned to an ARVN infantry battalion in Kontum Province.
On 28 Feb 1971 the battalion was taken under attack by the North Vietnamese Army's 66th Infantry Regiment and forced into a defensive position. By early afternoon the next day, 01 March, the NVA force succeeded in breaching the ARVN defenses and overrunning the position.
As the NVA entered the ARVN position friendly fire was called in on top of the defenders in a futile last-ditch effort to break up the attack. The surviving US and ARVN soldiers scattered to attempt escape and evasion as individuals and in small groups.
SP5 Zubke was alive when last seen within the defensive perimeter but he did not manage to return to friendly lines and there was no certainty as to exactly what happened to him.
Zubke was presumed to have been killed in the air strike called in to protect the surviving members of the team. A cold reality of war is that the few may sometimes suffer for the greater good of many.
The Army believes this is the case with Zubke, but because, in the confusion there is the chance that Zubke left the bunker, the Army did not declare him killed, but listed him Missing in Action. Clearly,the Army accepted the possibility that Zubke had been captured.
On 05 Oct 1978 the Secretary of the Army approved a Presumptive Finding of Death, changing his status from MIA to Died while Missing.
His body has not been recovered.
----------
Another memorial located at HERE.
*** Deland was declared dead in 1978. A tombstone was brought to the cemetery, but the family has held no burial service.
*** Staff Sergeant Zubke was a member of Battery B, 7th Battalion, 15 Artillery Regiment, 52 Artillery Group. On March 1, 1971, he was a radio operator for an artillery forward observer team in South Vietnam, when his position was overrun by the enemy. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.
You may be gone, no longer living on this earth; but you will live on - in the memories of your family and friends. There will always be a part of you living in those who knew you. You will live on because we remember you!
DELAND DWIGHT ZUBKE - Army - SSGT - E6 1st Field Force
Deland Zubke enlisted in the Army shortly after graduating from high school in 1970.
On March 2, 1971, Mrs. Drusilla and her late husband, Gerald, received the news. "He, her son (Deland) was only there two months when he came up missing,"Zubke recalled.
Age: 26
Race: Caucasian
Date of Birth Oct 28, 1951
From: GRASSY BUTTE, ND
Religion: LUTHERAN & MISSOURI SYNOD
Marital Status: Single - Parents: Father, Gerald Zubke, Born April 18, 1926 and Died April 26, 1993 and Mother, Drusilla Zubke, 77(In March 26, 2014).
Mrs.Zubke has three sons, a daughter, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Brother, Denton.
***** WATFORD CITY, N.D. (AP) - A bracelet worn for a North Dakota soldier missing in Vietnam has brought two women together after more than two decades.
"There really are nice people in the world," said Drusilla Zubke, 77, after meeting Bonnie Barrett, 36, the keeper of her son's missing-in-action bracelet.....
Saturday, June 12, 2004
***** Its the little things!!
Denton
Brother
***** He Took My Place - I met Specialist Five Deland Zubke in January 1971 right after I returned from R&R in Australia. Deland had just arrived in Vietnam and was assigned to LZ Oasis where we worked together in the battery's fire direction center. LZ Oasis was a desolate, vegetation-free firebase in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in the IDrang River valley near the Cambodian border. With his easy going manner and
friendly personality, we quickly became close friends despite the relatively short period of time we had together. In February 1971, a fire support mission came down to our battery to provide a forward observer and radio telephone operator for a South Vietnamese infantry battalion. Since I was the senior fire direction specialist in B Btry, I was initially selected to serve as the RTO. But with almost 11 months in-country
I had short timer jitters and was somewhat reluctant to accept the hazardous mission. Without hesitation, Deland willingly volunteered to take my place on what would become his final mission. The ARVN battalion come under attack by a superior North Vietnamese force--a regiment of heavily armed regular infantry. Things got so desperate that the Americans called artillery fire on their own position in what was to become a futile attemplt to prevent the 66th NVA regiment from over running the ARVN battalion.
Deland was last seen aiming his 45 caliber pistol at the ARVN infantryman who was carrying the radio for him to prevent the ARVN from acting like his comrades and fleeing the battlefield. This action occurred 30 years ago to the day I first wrote this remembrance.
Deland's remains have never been recovered and to this day he is listed on the Vietnam Wall as missing in action. The forward observer, 1LT Walden, eventually made it back to friendly lines and was awarded the Silver Star for his courage under the most difficult combat conditions imaginable. And I'm sure then Specialist Five Zubke would have also been accorded that honor for his steadfast determination to hold the line at all costs against a greatly superior enemy force.
Moreover, Deland willingly placed himself in the dangerous mission by taking my place. I'm still in the military as an Air Force colonel, but I will never forget Deland and the favor he did which spared my life.
SP5 Zubke has long been a hero in my family and for 18 or so years now, I go to the Vietnam Wall and look for his name. And my son wore his POW/MIA braclet while attending West Point where he is now a senior. I just wish I had Deland's courage. I hope to someday visit his family and express my feelings of Deland and deep appreciation in person.
COL Ralph Liebhaber
His tour began on Mar 1, 1971
Casualty was on Oct 5, 1978
In KONTUM, SOUTH VIETNAM
Hostile, died while missing, GROUND CASUALTY
Body was not recovered
Panel 04W - Line 17
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
SP5 Zubke was serving as a radio operator with an artillery forward observer group assigned to an ARVN infantry battalion in Kontum Province.
On 28 Feb 1971 the battalion was taken under attack by the North Vietnamese Army's 66th Infantry Regiment and forced into a defensive position. By early afternoon the next day, 01 March, the NVA force succeeded in breaching the ARVN defenses and overrunning the position.
As the NVA entered the ARVN position friendly fire was called in on top of the defenders in a futile last-ditch effort to break up the attack. The surviving US and ARVN soldiers scattered to attempt escape and evasion as individuals and in small groups.
SP5 Zubke was alive when last seen within the defensive perimeter but he did not manage to return to friendly lines and there was no certainty as to exactly what happened to him.
Zubke was presumed to have been killed in the air strike called in to protect the surviving members of the team. A cold reality of war is that the few may sometimes suffer for the greater good of many.
The Army believes this is the case with Zubke, but because, in the confusion there is the chance that Zubke left the bunker, the Army did not declare him killed, but listed him Missing in Action. Clearly,the Army accepted the possibility that Zubke had been captured.
On 05 Oct 1978 the Secretary of the Army approved a Presumptive Finding of Death, changing his status from MIA to Died while Missing.
His body has not been recovered.
----------
Another memorial located at HERE.
In Memory of ..... SSGT. Deland Dwight Zubke.
*** Deland was declared dead in 1978. A tombstone was brought to the cemetery, but the family has held no burial service.
*** Staff Sergeant Zubke was a member of Battery B, 7th Battalion, 15 Artillery Regiment, 52 Artillery Group. On March 1, 1971, he was a radio operator for an artillery forward observer team in South Vietnam, when his position was overrun by the enemy. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.
You may be gone, no longer living on this earth; but you will live on - in the memories of your family and friends. There will always be a part of you living in those who knew you. You will live on because we remember you!
DELAND DWIGHT ZUBKE - Army - SSGT - E6 1st Field Force
Deland Zubke enlisted in the Army shortly after graduating from high school in 1970.
On March 2, 1971, Mrs. Drusilla and her late husband, Gerald, received the news. "He, her son (Deland) was only there two months when he came up missing,"Zubke recalled.
Age: 26
Race: Caucasian
Date of Birth Oct 28, 1951
From: GRASSY BUTTE, ND
Religion: LUTHERAN & MISSOURI SYNOD
Marital Status: Single - Parents: Father, Gerald Zubke, Born April 18, 1926 and Died April 26, 1993 and Mother, Drusilla Zubke, 77(In March 26, 2014).
Mrs.Zubke has three sons, a daughter, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Brother, Denton.
***** WATFORD CITY, N.D. (AP) - A bracelet worn for a North Dakota soldier missing in Vietnam has brought two women together after more than two decades.
"There really are nice people in the world," said Drusilla Zubke, 77, after meeting Bonnie Barrett, 36, the keeper of her son's missing-in-action bracelet.....
Saturday, June 12, 2004
***** Its the little things!!
Denton
Brother
***** He Took My Place - I met Specialist Five Deland Zubke in January 1971 right after I returned from R&R in Australia. Deland had just arrived in Vietnam and was assigned to LZ Oasis where we worked together in the battery's fire direction center. LZ Oasis was a desolate, vegetation-free firebase in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in the IDrang River valley near the Cambodian border. With his easy going manner and
friendly personality, we quickly became close friends despite the relatively short period of time we had together. In February 1971, a fire support mission came down to our battery to provide a forward observer and radio telephone operator for a South Vietnamese infantry battalion. Since I was the senior fire direction specialist in B Btry, I was initially selected to serve as the RTO. But with almost 11 months in-country
I had short timer jitters and was somewhat reluctant to accept the hazardous mission. Without hesitation, Deland willingly volunteered to take my place on what would become his final mission. The ARVN battalion come under attack by a superior North Vietnamese force--a regiment of heavily armed regular infantry. Things got so desperate that the Americans called artillery fire on their own position in what was to become a futile attemplt to prevent the 66th NVA regiment from over running the ARVN battalion.
Deland was last seen aiming his 45 caliber pistol at the ARVN infantryman who was carrying the radio for him to prevent the ARVN from acting like his comrades and fleeing the battlefield. This action occurred 30 years ago to the day I first wrote this remembrance.
Deland's remains have never been recovered and to this day he is listed on the Vietnam Wall as missing in action. The forward observer, 1LT Walden, eventually made it back to friendly lines and was awarded the Silver Star for his courage under the most difficult combat conditions imaginable. And I'm sure then Specialist Five Zubke would have also been accorded that honor for his steadfast determination to hold the line at all costs against a greatly superior enemy force.
Moreover, Deland willingly placed himself in the dangerous mission by taking my place. I'm still in the military as an Air Force colonel, but I will never forget Deland and the favor he did which spared my life.
SP5 Zubke has long been a hero in my family and for 18 or so years now, I go to the Vietnam Wall and look for his name. And my son wore his POW/MIA braclet while attending West Point where he is now a senior. I just wish I had Deland's courage. I hope to someday visit his family and express my feelings of Deland and deep appreciation in person.
COL Ralph Liebhaber
His tour began on Mar 1, 1971
Casualty was on Oct 5, 1978
In KONTUM, SOUTH VIETNAM
Hostile, died while missing, GROUND CASUALTY
Body was not recovered
Panel 04W - Line 17
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
SP5 Zubke was serving as a radio operator with an artillery forward observer group assigned to an ARVN infantry battalion in Kontum Province.
On 28 Feb 1971 the battalion was taken under attack by the North Vietnamese Army's 66th Infantry Regiment and forced into a defensive position. By early afternoon the next day, 01 March, the NVA force succeeded in breaching the ARVN defenses and overrunning the position.
As the NVA entered the ARVN position friendly fire was called in on top of the defenders in a futile last-ditch effort to break up the attack. The surviving US and ARVN soldiers scattered to attempt escape and evasion as individuals and in small groups.
SP5 Zubke was alive when last seen within the defensive perimeter but he did not manage to return to friendly lines and there was no certainty as to exactly what happened to him.
Zubke was presumed to have been killed in the air strike called in to protect the surviving members of the team. A cold reality of war is that the few may sometimes suffer for the greater good of many.
The Army believes this is the case with Zubke, but because, in the confusion there is the chance that Zubke left the bunker, the Army did not declare him killed, but listed him Missing in Action. Clearly,the Army accepted the possibility that Zubke had been captured.
On 05 Oct 1978 the Secretary of the Army approved a Presumptive Finding of Death, changing his status from MIA to Died while Missing.
His body has not been recovered.
----------
Another memorial located at HERE.
*** Deland was declared dead in 1978. A tombstone was brought to the cemetery, but the family has held no burial service.
*** Staff Sergeant Zubke was a member of Battery B, 7th Battalion, 15 Artillery Regiment, 52 Artillery Group. On March 1, 1971, he was a radio operator for an artillery forward observer team in South Vietnam, when his position was overrun by the enemy. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.
You may be gone, no longer living on this earth; but you will live on - in the memories of your family and friends. There will always be a part of you living in those who knew you. You will live on because we remember you!
DELAND DWIGHT ZUBKE - Army - SSGT - E6 1st Field Force
Deland Zubke enlisted in the Army shortly after graduating from high school in 1970.
On March 2, 1971, Mrs. Drusilla and her late husband, Gerald, received the news. "He, her son (Deland) was only there two months when he came up missing,"Zubke recalled.
Age: 26
Race: Caucasian
Date of Birth Oct 28, 1951
From: GRASSY BUTTE, ND
Religion: LUTHERAN & MISSOURI SYNOD
Marital Status: Single - Parents: Father, Gerald Zubke, Born April 18, 1926 and Died April 26, 1993 and Mother, Drusilla Zubke, 77(In March 26, 2014).
Mrs.Zubke has three sons, a daughter, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Brother, Denton.
***** WATFORD CITY, N.D. (AP) - A bracelet worn for a North Dakota soldier missing in Vietnam has brought two women together after more than two decades.
"There really are nice people in the world," said Drusilla Zubke, 77, after meeting Bonnie Barrett, 36, the keeper of her son's missing-in-action bracelet.....
Saturday, June 12, 2004
***** Its the little things!!
Denton
Brother
***** He Took My Place - I met Specialist Five Deland Zubke in January 1971 right after I returned from R&R in Australia. Deland had just arrived in Vietnam and was assigned to LZ Oasis where we worked together in the battery's fire direction center. LZ Oasis was a desolate, vegetation-free firebase in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in the IDrang River valley near the Cambodian border. With his easy going manner and
friendly personality, we quickly became close friends despite the relatively short period of time we had together. In February 1971, a fire support mission came down to our battery to provide a forward observer and radio telephone operator for a South Vietnamese infantry battalion. Since I was the senior fire direction specialist in B Btry, I was initially selected to serve as the RTO. But with almost 11 months in-country
I had short timer jitters and was somewhat reluctant to accept the hazardous mission. Without hesitation, Deland willingly volunteered to take my place on what would become his final mission. The ARVN battalion come under attack by a superior North Vietnamese force--a regiment of heavily armed regular infantry. Things got so desperate that the Americans called artillery fire on their own position in what was to become a futile attemplt to prevent the 66th NVA regiment from over running the ARVN battalion.
Deland was last seen aiming his 45 caliber pistol at the ARVN infantryman who was carrying the radio for him to prevent the ARVN from acting like his comrades and fleeing the battlefield. This action occurred 30 years ago to the day I first wrote this remembrance.
Deland's remains have never been recovered and to this day he is listed on the Vietnam Wall as missing in action. The forward observer, 1LT Walden, eventually made it back to friendly lines and was awarded the Silver Star for his courage under the most difficult combat conditions imaginable. And I'm sure then Specialist Five Zubke would have also been accorded that honor for his steadfast determination to hold the line at all costs against a greatly superior enemy force.
Moreover, Deland willingly placed himself in the dangerous mission by taking my place. I'm still in the military as an Air Force colonel, but I will never forget Deland and the favor he did which spared my life.
SP5 Zubke has long been a hero in my family and for 18 or so years now, I go to the Vietnam Wall and look for his name. And my son wore his POW/MIA braclet while attending West Point where he is now a senior. I just wish I had Deland's courage. I hope to someday visit his family and express my feelings of Deland and deep appreciation in person.
COL Ralph Liebhaber
His tour began on Mar 1, 1971
Casualty was on Oct 5, 1978
In KONTUM, SOUTH VIETNAM
Hostile, died while missing, GROUND CASUALTY
Body was not recovered
Panel 04W - Line 17
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
SP5 Zubke was serving as a radio operator with an artillery forward observer group assigned to an ARVN infantry battalion in Kontum Province.
On 28 Feb 1971 the battalion was taken under attack by the North Vietnamese Army's 66th Infantry Regiment and forced into a defensive position. By early afternoon the next day, 01 March, the NVA force succeeded in breaching the ARVN defenses and overrunning the position.
As the NVA entered the ARVN position friendly fire was called in on top of the defenders in a futile last-ditch effort to break up the attack. The surviving US and ARVN soldiers scattered to attempt escape and evasion as individuals and in small groups.
SP5 Zubke was alive when last seen within the defensive perimeter but he did not manage to return to friendly lines and there was no certainty as to exactly what happened to him.
Zubke was presumed to have been killed in the air strike called in to protect the surviving members of the team. A cold reality of war is that the few may sometimes suffer for the greater good of many.
The Army believes this is the case with Zubke, but because, in the confusion there is the chance that Zubke left the bunker, the Army did not declare him killed, but listed him Missing in Action. Clearly,the Army accepted the possibility that Zubke had been captured.
On 05 Oct 1978 the Secretary of the Army approved a Presumptive Finding of Death, changing his status from MIA to Died while Missing.
His body has not been recovered.
----------
Another memorial located at HERE.
