SSgt Skarman #2259821
MOS: 0311 Rifleman.
Orval was born in Duluth and lived there all of his life. He was working at the time that he enlisted in the Marines 1 July 1966, at a recruiting office in Minneapolis and took his boot camp training at the San Diego MCRD.
When Orval arrived in Vietnam, he was assigned to Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division. An experienced Marine, he was released from his unit for a period of R&R - but he did not return on schedule, and on 15 January 1968 he was classed as Missing in Action. No trace of him was ever found, but there was nothing in his record to indicate that he would willingly abandon the Corps.
A week earlier, a CH-46 helicopter from HMH-463 had crashed on a mountainside while ferrying troops, including a number of men going on R&R, between Dong Ha in Quang Tri Province and Phu Bai, near Hue. The CH-46, flying in heavy rain and fog, had collided with a sheer cliff. Although the wreckage had been sighted within a few days, weather and geography combined to delay recovery efforts for three weeks.
Orval was not manifested on the CH-46, but neither were some of the men whose bodies were recovered from the wreckage. It's impossible to know, but it's certainly possible that Orval caught a lift on a CH-46A #153710, died in the crash, and was not recovered when search teams finally made it to the cliff side crash site.
Survived by his parents, Harry Carl and Anne Eknes Skarman and his 2 sisters; Karen and Carol of Duluth, Minnesota.
MOS: 0311 Rifleman.
Orval was born in Duluth and lived there all of his life. He was working at the time that he enlisted in the Marines 1 July 1966, at a recruiting office in Minneapolis and took his boot camp training at the San Diego MCRD.
When Orval arrived in Vietnam, he was assigned to Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division. An experienced Marine, he was released from his unit for a period of R&R - but he did not return on schedule, and on 15 January 1968 he was classed as Missing in Action. No trace of him was ever found, but there was nothing in his record to indicate that he would willingly abandon the Corps.
A week earlier, a CH-46 helicopter from HMH-463 had crashed on a mountainside while ferrying troops, including a number of men going on R&R, between Dong Ha in Quang Tri Province and Phu Bai, near Hue. The CH-46, flying in heavy rain and fog, had collided with a sheer cliff. Although the wreckage had been sighted within a few days, weather and geography combined to delay recovery efforts for three weeks.
Orval was not manifested on the CH-46, but neither were some of the men whose bodies were recovered from the wreckage. It's impossible to know, but it's certainly possible that Orval caught a lift on a CH-46A #153710, died in the crash, and was not recovered when search teams finally made it to the cliff side crash site.
Survived by his parents, Harry Carl and Anne Eknes Skarman and his 2 sisters; Karen and Carol of Duluth, Minnesota.
SSgt Skarman #2259821
MOS: 0311 Rifleman.
Orval was born in Duluth and lived there all of his life. He was working at the time that he enlisted in the Marines 1 July 1966, at a recruiting office in Minneapolis and took his boot camp training at the San Diego MCRD.
When Orval arrived in Vietnam, he was assigned to Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division. An experienced Marine, he was released from his unit for a period of R&R - but he did not return on schedule, and on 15 January 1968 he was classed as Missing in Action. No trace of him was ever found, but there was nothing in his record to indicate that he would willingly abandon the Corps.
A week earlier, a CH-46 helicopter from HMH-463 had crashed on a mountainside while ferrying troops, including a number of men going on R&R, between Dong Ha in Quang Tri Province and Phu Bai, near Hue. The CH-46, flying in heavy rain and fog, had collided with a sheer cliff. Although the wreckage had been sighted within a few days, weather and geography combined to delay recovery efforts for three weeks.
Orval was not manifested on the CH-46, but neither were some of the men whose bodies were recovered from the wreckage. It's impossible to know, but it's certainly possible that Orval caught a lift on a CH-46A #153710, died in the crash, and was not recovered when search teams finally made it to the cliff side crash site.
Survived by his parents, Harry Carl and Anne Eknes Skarman and his 2 sisters; Karen and Carol of Duluth, Minnesota.
MOS: 0311 Rifleman.
Orval was born in Duluth and lived there all of his life. He was working at the time that he enlisted in the Marines 1 July 1966, at a recruiting office in Minneapolis and took his boot camp training at the San Diego MCRD.
When Orval arrived in Vietnam, he was assigned to Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division. An experienced Marine, he was released from his unit for a period of R&R - but he did not return on schedule, and on 15 January 1968 he was classed as Missing in Action. No trace of him was ever found, but there was nothing in his record to indicate that he would willingly abandon the Corps.
A week earlier, a CH-46 helicopter from HMH-463 had crashed on a mountainside while ferrying troops, including a number of men going on R&R, between Dong Ha in Quang Tri Province and Phu Bai, near Hue. The CH-46, flying in heavy rain and fog, had collided with a sheer cliff. Although the wreckage had been sighted within a few days, weather and geography combined to delay recovery efforts for three weeks.
Orval was not manifested on the CH-46, but neither were some of the men whose bodies were recovered from the wreckage. It's impossible to know, but it's certainly possible that Orval caught a lift on a CH-46A #153710, died in the crash, and was not recovered when search teams finally made it to the cliff side crash site.
Survived by his parents, Harry Carl and Anne Eknes Skarman and his 2 sisters; Karen and Carol of Duluth, Minnesota.
Gravesite Details
VietNam
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