Decades after Vietnam, family still remembers

Jeff Uhren was a standout athlete at Billings Senior High School in more ways than one. Not only was he an all-state high jumper as well as a varsity basketball player, he really did stand out in a crowd. Tall - he eventually grew to 6 feet 5 inches - and rail thin, Jeff was one of the funniest kids at Senior High in those days, remembers Cal Winslow, who played on the same basketball team."His sense of humor was amazing," Winslow said last week. "When Jeff walked into a group of people, they stopped talking and listened only to him."Jeff Uhren was one of several Senior High graduates who would lose their lives in Vietnam. Of the 31 young men from Billings who died in that war, several graduating classes during the 1960s were hit the hardest. At least 10 students were killed out of the classes of '65, '66, '67, Jeff Uhren's brother Greg said. Greg graduated in 1965 from Senior High with Dennis Ulstad, who would later die in Vietnam. Jeff went to high school with Mike Padilla, who also was killed in Vietnam in 1968. Mike's brother, Terry Padilla of Billings, knew 16 of those young men, including Greg Gifford, Frank Garcia and Larry "Jim" Burkhardt.  Burkhardt, who graduated from Senior High School in 1966, was a starter on the Broncs basketball team with Jeff Uhren their senior year. Burkhardt went to Eastern Montana College (now Montana State University-Billings) before he was drafted in April 1967, said Burkhardt's twin sister Jeannie Burkhardt Krohmer, who lives in Billings. Sent to Vietnam in April 1968, he died on May 27, 1968, when he was just 20 years old. Larry married before he left for Vietnam, and his son, Larry Burkhardt Jr., lives in South Dakota. Burkhardt died four months before Jeff Uhren. After graduation from high school, Uhren worked at a window and door manufacturer in Billings before joining the U.S. Army and becoming a radioman in an infantry platoon. He was wounded once, though not seriously, and sent back into combat. On Oct. 1, 1968, Uhren's platoon was in a combat zone and had moved the night before. Their commanding officer didn't know about the move and called in artillery fire on what he thought was an enemy position. Instead, it hit the Americans. Jeff was wounded in the back, but apparently thought that the wound wasn't serious enough to get on a helicopter called in to evacuate them. He was ordered to do so. The helicopter was hit by enemy fire, and all aboard were killed. Jeff had turned 21 barely two months before. He was promoted to corporal posthumously. A little more than a year after Jeff died, Greg Uhren married. When his first child was born, there was no doubt in Greg's mind what they would name the baby if it was a boy. Greg's son, Jeff Uhren, now is a math teacher at Billings Senior High School. Although Jeff is buried in Grand Forks, N.D., Greg's family goes to Mountview Cemetery for Memorial Day services every year. Jeff never complained about the ambiguities of the war, his brother said. "Jeff was really outgoing," Greg said. "He liked people and loved the people of Vietnam. You couldn't ask for a better brother." Friends as well as family still grieve for the young men. Even though more than three decades have passed, "you don't forget," Winslow said. Winslow, who now lives in Los Angeles, looks back and still wonders at the unfairness of who went to Vietnam and who didn't. By the late 1960s, young men who could go to college had a better chance of not going to Vietnam. Those who didn't want to go to college - or couldn't afford it - often were drafted. Losing several friends in the war was "a real awakening for young kids," Winslow said. "It was hard to realize that young athletes were mortal."