Donald C. Grella
Donald Grella was born in 1940 and lived on a farm near Laurel, Nebraska until his father died in 1953 when Donald, along with this mother and sister moved to Laurel. Don was a member of the United Lutheran church where he served as an usher. Folks in Laurel may remember Don with his lawnmower or snow shovel, working hard as a teenager to keep spending money in his pocket. He was also quick to accept any offer from area farmers to stack hay, cut cockle burrs, etc. Growing up in Laurel, Donald loved the outdoors and was an avid hunter and fisherman. Although small for his age, what he lacked in size he made up for in grit. Donald was fearless. If he was ever afraid of anything, no one ever knew. The hours he spent lifting weights eventually carved impressive muscles on his growing frame.
Don graduated from Laurel High School in 1958 and worked in the Laurel area until volunteering for the draft in 1961. He spent two years in the states serving as a crew chief for fixed wing aircraft. After his discharge, he waited almost a year before re-enlisting in the Army with plans to make the military a career. His first assignment was Korea where he was trained as a helicopter crew chief. Before leaving Korea in 1965, he requested Vietnam as his next assignment.
Upon his return from Korea, Don received advanced training as a crew chief for the now famous Huey helicopter. He was then assigned to “A” Company of the newly formed 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). The unit arrived at An Khe in the Central Highlands in September 1965 and was immediately thrown into the tasks of establishing their base and fighting a war.
Don’s days there were probably best known for the deadly Ia Drang battles fought in November of 1965. The “A” Company Hueys and crews provided the airlifts for the infantry that fought the Ia Drang battles which were later depicted in the move, “We Were Soldiers”.
Don was only in Vietnam for three months before going MIA. Only one month after the Ia Drang battle, on December 28th, 1965, Donald and three other crew members were on an early morning supply mission which would take them through the An Khe Pass. Dealing with darkness and poor weather, the aircraft vanished without a trace. Despite numerous searches, the fate of the crew remained a mystery. After one year, the crew members were reclassified as “Missing, Presumed Dead”. When the war ended, they were listed as “Killed in Action, Body not Recovered”.
In 1999, Don’s sister and brother-in-law, Shirley and Ron Haase, began actively pursuing information regarding Don’s fate. When they first received his file, their attention was drawn to one particular report in the file. A Vietnamese refugee had written a letter in 1985 telling the approximate location of an alleged crash site of an American helicopter which had the numbers “3-8008” painted on it – the same tail number as Don’s Huey. For the next 11 years, Shirley and Ron made many trips to Washington, DC, relentlessly pushing the government to pursue the 1985 lead. Progress on the case was slow until 2006 when a U.S. investigative team interviewed villagers in the Central Highlands. One villager said he had shot down an American helicopter in that area at the time Don went missing. A visit to the site of the reported shoot-down revealed pieces of wreckage of an American UH-1 “Huey” helicopter, most likely that of 808’s crew.
Three years later, in March of 2009, the crash site was excavated, and human remains were recovered along with one dog tag bearing the name of Donald Grella. A forensic laboratory in Hawaii positively identified all four crew members of the missing crew. Don’s remains were returned to Laurel on September 26th, 2009, accompanied by Don’s sister, Shirley and her husband, Ron. On October 4th, 2009, a funeral was held in Laurel and Don was finally laid to rest, buried between his mother and father in the local cemetery. The human remains recovered at the crash site that could not be identified to any particular crew member were buried in a group gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery on April 10th, 2010.
Don was preceded in death by his father, Leo, in 1953 and his mother, Alberta, in 2006. Don is survived by his sister, Shirley Haase.
During his military career, Don earned the following medals: Air Medal with 7 Oak Leaf Clusters, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal with 2 Bronze Service Stars, Korea Defense Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal with “60” Device, Presidential Unit Citation, Meritorious Unit Commendation, Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation with Palm Device, Republic of Vietnam Civil Actions Honor Medal First Class, Expert Badge with Rifle Bar, and Aviation Badge. In 2012, Donald GrellaSP5 Donald Grella was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart Medal.
