CEDAR FALLS — Sixty years ago, Robert John Hibbs of Cedar Falls graduated from the Reserve Officer Training Corps program at what is now the University of Northern Iowa. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army.
Less than two years later, in South Vietnam, he saved his squad of 14 soldiers from being overrrun by a group of 100 Viet Cong guerrillas, holding off the superior enemy force at the cost of his own life — a few weeks shy of his 23rd birthday.
In 1967, in Washington, D.C., President Lyndon Johnson awarded his parents a posthumous Medal of Honor. He was the first of five Iowans in that war to receive the nation’s highest honor for valor in combat — and the only one to receive it posthumously. He also was the first Black Hawk County resident to die in Vietnam.
In 1994, the Cedar Falls City Council voted to name a new Main Street Bridge over the Cedar River the Robert J. Hibbs Medal of Honor Bridge.
That was 30 years ago. For years, a small brass plaque on the bridge was the only permanent testimonial to Hibbs’ heroism to the public using the bridge.
That has changed, thanks to a veterans post which bears the lieutenant’s name.
After some effort, the Robert J. Hibbs Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3896 obtained the necessary approvals and secured funds to erect flags and rotating memorial banners on bridge light poles honoring different local veterans.
It’s the post members’ attempt to draw more attention to the bridge and the service and sacrifice of its namesake and all veterans, said Mike Butler of the post. He’s a U.S. Navy Vietnam veteran who served on the carrier USS Enterprise during the evacuation of the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon at war’s end.
“Decades ago, we went together with the (Cedar Falls) American Legion and the AMVETS to convince the city we would name the Main Stret Bridge the Robert J Hibbs bridge,” Butler said.
Since then, he said, “we’ve not done much” except signage and a wreath placed on either end of the bride on Memorial Day.
“We kind of realized we really should do more,” Butler said. After consultation with city officials and an agreement with Cedar Falls Utilities, they secured necessary funds and the cooperation of a sign contractor.
Banners for Hibbs are at the center of the bridge, with other veterans featured across the bridge span, rotating regularly, The post will offer banners for sale each year with proceeds supporting upkeep of the brackets and flags and production of banners. “Each year we’ll sell four new ones,” Butler said, with Hibbs always in the center.
The initial group of other banners recognize:
—William “Bill” Craig, Jr., a U.S. Army Vietnan veteran and commander of the Hibbs VFW post when it was reorganized and re-formed in June 1984. He had a hand in establishing the Black Hawk County Vietnam Veterans Memorial near the Fourth Street Bridge in downtown Waterloo.
—Larry Walters, a recently deceased Vietnam combat veteran and career Iowa National Guard soldier who was the longest serving commander of the Hibbs VFW post. He was a graduate of Waterloo East High School, attended Iowa State University and worked many years on helicopters at the Iowa Guard’s air aviation support facility in Waterloo.
—Robert F. Stenzel, a U.S. Navy motor machinists mate third class and a World War II Pacific war veteran. He is the father in law of Hibbs post member and retired Iowa Army National Guard Col. Tim Eich, who served in Iraq and is former commander of the Iowa Guard Waterloo air aviation facility.
—U.S. Army Spc. Travis Vaughn, a 1999 Cedar Falls High School graduate who served in the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, “The Night Stalkers,” and was killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan in 2007.
Butler said the Cedar Falls bridge project was inspired by Waterloo’s “Veterans Way” initiative last year, which has veteran banners on light poles along Fourth Street, the main commercial throughfare in downtown Waterloo. The Hibbs VFW post had purchased a banner for Hibbs in Waterloo and wanted to do the same thing in Cedar Falls, on his namesake bridge.
Hibbs was a 1961 graduate of Cedar Falls High School. As a youth he had a collection of minature toy soldiers he’d meticuously painted and played with, putting them in formations and planning maneuvers. He graduated from UNI, then the State College of Iowa, in 1964.
He served the 2nd battalion of the 28th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division, known as "The Big Red One” for its unit patch.
On March 5, 1966 operating in the “Iron Triangle” area of South Vietnam near Don Dien Lo Re, Hibbs spotted a company of 100 Viet Cong through the night scope of his M-16 rifle about 1,000 yards away, advancing from a rubber plantation.
Hibbs waited until the guerrillas were in position, and exploded a Claymore mine in their midst. Then Hibbs and his men opened fire with their M-16s and lobbed grenades at them. He exploded more mines and destroyed half the enemy unit, according to military accounts.
As Hibbs’ squad retreated to their own lines, they encountered a second Viet Cong company. They surprised and shot their way through that unit as it advanced on the American and South Vietnamese positions.
Hibbs and his men reached their own lines, but a wounded man had been left behind. Hibbs and another soldier, Sgt. David Payne of Fort McClellan, Ala., returned to retrieve him.
“While Payne dragged the man to safety, Hibbs provided covering fire and suffered the mortal wounds when he single-handedly tried to eliminate two enemy machine gun emplacements,” according to a Jan. 29, 1967, Courier article.
One of Hibbs’ last acts was to destroy his night scope to prevent it from enemy capture.
Payne later received the Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart for wounds suffered during the rescue. Hibbs’ battalion commander, Col. Kyle Bowie, recommended him for the Medal of Honor. Decades later, Bowie participated in the bridge dedication in Cedar Falls.
Hibbs also is honored on the UNI campus and on the Black Hawk County Freedom Rock at Veterans Park in Cedar Falls. His Medal of Honor is at the 1st Infantry Division museum in Wheaton, Ill. and his late parents donated his 1,000-piece miniature soldier collection to the National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning, Ga.
Butler said anyone wishing to purchase a banner on the Hibbs bridge, honoring a veteran with a Cedar Valley connection, may contact Robert J. Hibbs VFW Post 3896 through its Facebook page. The banners cost $250 and will be displayed from Memorial Day through Veterans Day each year and returned to the family or those who purchased them, as a keepsake.
The spruced-up bridge with its new flags and banners is expected to get some attention during the annual Sturgis Falls Celebration Friday-Sunday, June 28-30. The bridge and its pedestrian walkways connect festival sites on either side of the river.
Pat Kinney is a freelance writer and former longtime news staffer with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier and, prior to that, several years at the Ames Tribune. He is currently an oral historian with the Grout Museum District in Waterloo. His “View from the Cedar Valley” column is part of “Iowa Writers Collaborative,” a collection of news and opinion writers from around the state who previously and currently work with a host of Iowa newspapers, news organizations and other publications. Click on their links below to sample their work.
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Thank you, Pat.
Thanks for sharing this important story.