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Episode 3206 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about the man who visited the sites of the death of his father and uncle in Vietnam. The featured story is titled: A father and uncle were killed in Vietnam. This family returned to remember them. It appeared on the Task and Purpose website and was submitted by Matt White on President’s Day, 2026.
White reported that Jeff Evans traveled to Vietnam in late 2024 on a deeply personal mission: to stand where his father and uncle died during the war more than five decades earlier. Inspired by a “60 Minutes” segment about veterans revisiting former battlefields, Evans wondered why a Gold Star child couldn’t do the same. After nearly two years of research, collecting personnel files, maps, and military reports with help from a Vietnam veteran and the National Archives, he set out with his wife, Dena, and sons, Jake and Austin.
Finding the exact locations proved challenging. Village names had changed, rivers shifted, and modern development obscured old landmarks. Still, Evans pieced together clues and began his journey at the crash site of his uncle, David Lynn Evans, a 19-year-old gunner with the 117th Assault Helicopter Company. In 1968, David’s helicopter was shot down in Long An province. He reportedly stayed on his gun to protect fellow soldiers as they escaped, sacrificing his life. After trekking through jungle paths near a remote farmhouse, Evans recognized the terrain from satellite images. A local woman led them to a hidden memorial honoring 12 Vietnamese soldiers and one American — his uncle — killed in the firefight.
Days later, Evans visited Can Tho, where his father, Norman Francis Evans, died in 1970 when his reconnaissance plane collided with a helicopter. Standing near the river crash site, Evans felt not closure but connection. The journey ended quietly at a beachside bar, where he reflected on shared sacrifice and imagined his father and uncle once doing the same.
Listen to Episode 3206 and discover more about the man who visited the sites of the death of his father and uncle in Vietnam.
