Garland Dave Benoit was assigned to Delta Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Infantry during 1970. Garland was killed-in-action by small arms fire or booby trap on March 18, 1970 in Quang Ngai Province.
Click here to see Garland's listing on the Memorial page of this web site. He is also listed at the Virtual Wall.
If you know the circumstances involving Garland Dave Benoit's death or remember him, please contact the webmaster for this site with the details.
Email received from Michael McQueen on Tuesday, February 24, 2004:
My name is Michael McQueen. I was the platoon leader of 1st Platoon, Delta Company, 3/1 from 14 November, 1969 thru June 7, 1970.
I believe that Garland Benoit was one of 8 men who joined our platoon on Thanksgiving Day.
During mid-March we CA'd into a mountainous area with heavy vegetation. I described it in one of my letters:
"We are now on a 14-day mission about 20 miles south of our normal AO. We are just about due west of Duc Pho. We are searching for POW camps, NVA hospitals, rest areas, etc. "
On the morning of 18 March, while we were preparing to leave our NDP, he and Darrell Hespe went outside of our perimeter to retrieve trip flares that had been put out the night before. They were ambushed by a small number of NVA. They were both hit by small arms fire. PFC Benoit died before he could be evacuated, despite the best efforts of our medic; PFC Hespe was so badly wounded that he never rejoined our unit.
I hope that this clears up the apparent confusion about the circumstances of his death. If you have any questions, please write to me and I will do my best to answer them.
Mike
