First Lieutenant Gene Helgeson Piloted Plane at Khe Sahn
Helgeson was awarded the Silver Star for Bravery, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Purple Heart.
Visit the Anderson Dock to see a memorial to Lieutenant Helgeson, who lost his life in Vietnam. Look for a tall white obelisk with a bronze plaque.
This 2021 blog was updated in May 2023.
It’s hard to miss the tall white obelisk at Ephraim’s Anderson Dock. The memorial obelisk honors First Lieutenant Ellis Eugene Helgeson, Jr., who served in the United States Air Force and was killed in action on March 6, 1968, during the Battle of Khe Sanh. The memorial was erected later that year by Amos M. Rasmussen. Curious visitors often wonder why a memorial honoring a pilot born in Cincinnati, Ohio, is at the dock.
The Helgeson name has a long history in Ephraim beginning with Matilda (Tilla) and Elias Helgeson, Lt. Helgeson's paternal grandparents and proprietors of the Edgewater Lodge from 1906 to 1961, today’s Edgewater Resort. After their deaths, Elias in 1923 and Tilla in 1954, four daughters (Lillian, Grace, Pearl, Elsie) and two sons (Guy and Ellis Eugene) helped run the business. Young Gene helped, too, and in so doing spent every childhood summer in Ephraim. "Ephraim was important to Gene," his father Ellis said at the dedication of his son's memorial in October, 1968. "He was so very happy here." Lieutenant Helgeson’s parents and grandparents are buried in the Ephraim Moravian Cemetery. Gene was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.
Schooling
Gene was born May 14, 1942 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Ruth Kastern and Ellis Helgeson. He was co-captain of the Mariemont High School football team (1958 League Champions), graduated from Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, and later Colgate University. In between his sophomore and junior years, Gene worked for Oceanographic Institute aboard the Atlantis for a year, sailing to South America. Helgeson graduated from Colgate in 1965 and received a commission in the Air Force ROTC. Before winning his wings at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma, in March 1967, he worked as assistant manager at Sugar Bush Inn Ski Resort, Vermont.
Friends Remember Gene
Gene Helgeson
Karl Kodanko first met Gene at the Ephraim public beach. Gene, or "Butch" he was then known, was up for the summer. Karl grew up on land where the High Point Inn now stands. He attended Ephraim's Pioneer Schoolhouse and later the new school that houses village offices today. In May 2021, Kodanko shared childhood memories of the time when Gene's older brother Guy swam across the harbor. Guy asked the younger kids to row alongside him in their handmade, 8-foot dinghy "just in case."
When Gene graduated from high school, his father sent him to work in Brownsville, Texas. The elder Helgeson was an executive for Proctor and Gamble, which had offices there. Karl lost touch with Gene after that but returned in 1968 for the dedication of the Anderson Dock memorial. Karl recalled that mourners gathered afterwards in the village hall.
Gene was bright, athletic, well-grounded and very well-mannered ... a worthy friend with a promising future. I mourn the loss of that potential and of my friend. - Bill Handschin.
Bill Handschin also shared memories. They first met when Gene was about twelve years old. The boys snorkeled around Anderson Dock "retrieving lost fishing tackle and pop bottles" to trade in for candy. They camped on Horseshoe Island and fished, one time catching a hefty bass with a spear gun.
Gene’s cousin Lois Nelson Bourgon, daughter of Grace Helgeson Nelson, shared memories of her cousin in July 2023. Both worked at the family hotel, Edgewater Lodge, as teenagers. Lois began waitressing there at age sixteen. The dining room was huge, with beautiful, polished maple floors. The Edgewater served breakfast and dinner with a choice of two different entrees, including fresh whitefish and in early decades lake trout. Like most other hotels of the era, chicken was served on Sundays, complete with mashed potatoes and gravy and cherry pie.
Butch (as Lois knew Gene) bussed tables and was also a bellhop. As bellhop, he unloaded suitcases and trunks from patrons’ cars and then carried their luggage. Edgewater bellhops wore a short white jacket and long black pants. Other staff included African Americans from Florida: Mac, also a bellhop, and Cedric the Edgewater Chef.
Gene was six months older than Lois, who described him as very smart, tall, and good looking with blonde hair. “At night, we would sit out on the grassy hill behind the hotel and watch the raccoons [foraging for food scraps at the lodge dumpsters]. We’d recite Shakespearian soliloquies, challenging each other to see who could remember more lines. ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!’ In the 1950s all the kids memorized Shakespeare for school.” Lois also recalled a hair-raising public mishap when the cousins decided to try a water ski trick by skiing past each other while criss-crossing ropes. Unfortunately, they didn’t realize for the water trick to work one rope must be shorter than the other!
Edgewater Lodge
The Helgeson family operated the Edgewater Lodge (built by L.E. Olson in 1901) from 1906 until 1971. Today it is called the Edgewater Resort.
Around that time, new owners Alvin “Itsie” and Janet Krause connected the Edgewater to Lang’s Resort, today’s Old Post Office Restaurant.
Military Service
Lieutenant Helgeson served with the 311th Air Commando Squadron, 315 Air Commando Wing, and 7 Air Force. The 311’s motto was Always First Without Fear. In April 2023 a pilot who served with Gene contacted the Ephraim Historical Foundation. Colonel Norman Ellard, along with Gene and many other fellow pilots, had joined the AFROTC while in college. The Air Force graduated a new class of pilots every six weeks. “Most of us knew we were going to Vietnam. Everyone was hoping to make it through the year and get out of there alive,” said Colonel Ellard.
“We were based at Danang Air Base and one of the fields we flew into was the Marine Base at Khe Sanh,” said Colonel Ellard, “which was isolated on top of a mountain, about 1500 ft in elevation, located near the Laotian border and the DMZ.” Roughly 5500 Marines defended the combat base, surrounded by 20,000 North Vietnamese troops. The plan was to interfere with the supplies being brought down the Ho Chi Minh Trail but the runway was short, initially only 2200 feet of aluminum planking, but lengthened to 2800 feet in the spring of 1967. The siege of Khe Sanh lasted 77 days and is considered by many to be one of the longest, deadliest and most controversial battles of the Vietnam War. It was the beginning of the Tet Offensive. “We were always under fire,” said Ellard.
Curious to know more? A plethora of articles are easily found on the web. "Khe Sahn" has also been enshrined in pop culture; Bruce Springsteen's 1984 classic rock ballad, Born in the USA, includes a stanza about Khe Sahn.
Upon arrival in Vietnam, 2nd Lieutenants flew as co-pilots before upgrading to Aircraft Commander. The duty day was from 0600 to 1800 and crews sometimes flew at night. Norman and Gene lived in the same barracks. He stood about six-foot-one, recalled Ellard. He was a good-looking guy. Ellard remembered that Gene went to Hawaii when his turn for R & R came up. While there, he put money down on a condo.
Ellard also recalled that “Most of us bought Seiko watches which not only displayed the time but also told us the date and what day it was, and Sunday always was abbreviated as SUN in red, and whenever you met someone new the question that was always asked was how many red letter days you have remaining. If you said more than 26 that meant you were a newcomer, but if you answered less than 26 days, you were a short timer.”
March 6, 1968
By March 6, 1968, Helgeson had been in Vietnam about eight months. On this day, he was co-pilot for a crew of five commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Jordan Hampton. Once in a while the C-123 airplane they flew transported cows, chickens, and pigs for special forces in the field. On this day it was transporting 44 marines into Khe Sanh. As they approached Khe Sanh enemy fire cut them off, so they turned south to avoid the mountain on the north. Then, North Vietnamese firepower hit the plane’s fuel line and the wing buckled. It took several long weeks to recover the fallen.
“We carried US troops, South Vietnamese troops, ammo, food, and wounded,” said Colonel Ellard. “We never transported the dead with other soldiers, living or wounded.” He remembered a time when fallen soldiers were transported and covered with blankets because there were not enough body bags.
“When I left South Vietnam in January 1968 and arrived back in the States,” said Colonel Ellard, “I was surprised and shocked at how the American public had turned against their own troops. I can understand why they were upset against the Federal politicians, but to turn against their own troops was beyond belief. I have never forgotten that nor will I ever forget it.”
C-123K Provider is a short-range transport plane used to airlift troops and cargo.
"In a tape recording made by Helgeson February 26, [1968], he commented how he had only four months left to serve in Vietnam of his one-year tour of duty there. He also had written his parents that he was flying transport planes 12 to 14 hours a day and had made flights to 421 bases in Vietnam in the last eight months ... Letters received from the Defense Department by the Helgesons report that helicopters have spotted the wreckage but search teams cannot get into the area until the barrage ends." The Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati, Ohio, Tuesday, March 12, 1968.
Seeing the Memorial
The Anderson Dock in Ephraim at holiday time. The memorial shines to the left of the Anderson Warehouse, today’s Hardy Gallery. Photo by Tad Dukehart.
The next time you visit Anderson Dock, be sure to stop and look for First Lieutenant E. Eugene Helgeson's name on the memorial obelisk's bronze plaque. Helgeson's name also appears on panel 43E, line 020 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. "At my request," wrote his friend Bill Handschin, "my wife retrieved a rubbing of his name from the Vietnam Memorial Wall. It helps keep his memory alive, although it is a poor substitute for Gene's friendly and engaging presence."
Gene’s cousin Lois recalled receiving the difficult phone announcing his death. By then, she was a new mother. Later that fall, Lois walked to the memorial dedication at Anderson Dock, pushing her baby daughter in a stroller. “Lots of people came,” she remembered. The color guard from Billy Weiss Post No. 527, American Legion, Sister Bay, took part in the ceremonies under the command of Henry Eckert. The Sister Bay Baptist Chapel Quartet – David and Dale Seaquist, Leonard Peterson and Roland Anderson – sang “Eternal Father, Strong to Save.” And Butch’s father said to the crowd, "If, in this war, or any future wars, a boy from Ephraim should give his life for his country, we would be honored to have his plaque added to this memorial.” Door County Advocate 10-29-1968
Lois recalled her uncle being pleased that the memorial was built of “space age plastic” that would last a long time and could be easily power washed. The light at the top, he told her in 1968, was powered by a 60-watt bulb. The memorial obelisk was designed to be a beacon for sailors and others seeking respite at Eagle Harbor.
A Final Word
When asked what he would like people to know about Lieutenant Gene Helgeson, Colonel Ellard said simply, “I would want people to recognize that Gene served his country.”
Special thanks to Karl Kodanko, Bill Handschin, Colonel Norman Ellard and Lois Nelson Bourgon who shared personal memories. For more information about Lt. Helgeson and the memorial at Anderson Dock visit: Wisconsin Historical Markers: The Memorial Obelisk for E. Eugene Helgeson, Jr. Virtual Wall - Viet Nam Veterans Memorial
Two Articles from the Door County Advocate, 1968
Door County Advocate 3-14-68 Lt. Helgeson Dead in Viet Nam
EPHRAIM - Word has been received here that Lt. Ellis E. Helgeson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Helgeson. Cincinnati, Ohio has been killed in action in Viet Nam. Lieutenant Helgeson spent all of his summers during childhood with relatives at Edgewater Lodge in Ephraim. Flying a transport plane, Lieutenant Helgeson was bringing Marines into Khe Sanh when hit by enemy fire about five miles from the base.
Before entering the Air Force, he graduated from Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts and Colgate University. Besides his parents, he is survived by a brother. Guy, New York, and other relatives.
Door County Advocate 10-29-1968 Dedicate Ephraim memorial to Lt. Helgeson, Viet Nam flyer
EPHRAIM - A gift the donors hope will never be used was presented to the village of Ephraim. Mr. and Mrs. Ellis E. Helgeson, Mariemont, Ohio, dedicated a memorial on Anderson Dock to their son Lt. Ellis E. Helgeson, Jr., who lost his life last March in Viet Nam.
During the dedication ceremonies, attended by a good crowd, Mr. Helgeson expressed the gratitude of his family to the village for permission to erect the memorial here. He added, "If, in this war, or any future wars, a boy from Ephraim should give his life for his country, we would be honored to have his plaque added to this memorial."
The slender 30-foot white memorial beacon now bears a plaque honoring Lt. Helgeson. The plaque has a bronze relief-head of the lieutenant and below are embossed replicas of his military honors-the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with two Oak Leaf clusters, and Purple Heart.Village President Lloyd Olson accepted the memorial on behalf of Ephraim, stating, "It would be our hope that young and old viewing this memorial will be Inspired to a greater sense of patriotism." "Gene," as Lieutenant Helgeson was known to friends, spent a good many summers in this village. His grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Ellis E. Helgeson, operated Edgewater Lodge for a number of years. "Ephraim was important to Gene,” his father said. "He was so very happy here.
The color guard from Billy Weiss Post No. 527, American Legion, Sister Bay, took part in the ceremonies, advancing and retiring the colors, under the command of Henry Eckert. The Rev. Clarence Meile of St. John's Catholic church, Egg Harbor, offered a prayer, stating, "Gene needs no eulogy from me or any other man. He has written his own by his devotion to duty, honor and country." "Let these words be our dedication," said the priest. Special music was provided by the Sister Bay Baptist Chapel quartet, David and Dale Seaquist, Leonard Peterson and Roland Anderson. They sang, "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" and "My Thanks to Him."
Wayne Paschke, master of ceremonies, outlined the lieutenant's school background and military career. Lieutenant Helgeson had been transporting troops to over 42 bases in Viet Nam. His plane was shot down on March 6, 1968 while attempting to land at Khe Sanh with 44 marines and a crew of five. All were killed.
It was an impressive tribute to the fallen flier. Flags fluttered at either side of the memorial column shining in the sunlight. There was a traditional strident salute from the firing squad. Young bugler Warren Lundquist sounded "Taps." Friends exchanged quiet words of greeting with the Helgesons. And in eternal motion, waves slapped and eddied below the dock. In a sense, Gene had, indeed, come home.
In 2017, the EHF published a blog about Lieutenant Helgeson written by Curator Emily Irwin. Educator Kathleen Harris edited and updated the blog in 2021 and 2023.
