Miamian Feature Story

Two of Miami’s most decorated veterans became best friends in college

By Rick Graves '71 and Donna Boen '83 MTSC '96

ON THAT SOLEMN FRIDAY afternoon in early November, the two brothers faced each other in Stanton Hall’s parking lot. Nearby maples in Miami’s South Quad gloried in orange and red hues. But Terry and Rick Graves saw no beauty in this moment.

Only days before, Terry Graves ’67 had graduated from The Basic School in Quantico. Designated a U.S. Marine Corps second lieutenant at Miami’s spring 1967 commencement six months earlier, he’d returned to campus for three precious days with his fiancée, Sylvia Beam ’68. After hugging her goodbye outside Hamilton Hall, he’d walked two blocks south to the freshman dorm for a heart to heart with Rick. From here he would head to Camp Pendleton near San Diego. Then Vietnam.

Terry was more honest with his little brother, four years his junior, than he’d been with his parents and young sister during his too-brief visit home to Edmeston, N.Y.

“He made it real clear to me that what he was going to do was extremely dangerous,” said Rick ’71, who remembers that conversation like it was burned into his brain. Terry was serious and direct, a tone he never took with Rick.

The chances of his returning unscathed were not good. Younger brother needed to be ready to be strong for the family.

“He indicated that he was kind of putting me in a tough situation. Not only would I become the guy for my parents, but also a shoulder to lean on for Sylvia if something happened.”

One of Terry’s best friends, 2nd Lt. William “Rich” Higgins ’67, followed a similar path.

This story is about two men who became Miami friends and American heroes. It is also about a younger brother who continues to idolize both.

HIGH SCHOOL PREP
Education was a top priority in the Graves family, with Terry’s father being a school superintendent. Terry’s father was also a Navy officer and flight instructor during World War II, making military service a highly respected pursuit in the minds of the Graves children, Terry, Rick, and Katherine.

A Boy Scout, president of his church fellowship, and perpetual defender of the little guy, Terry was appointed by his New York congressman to the U.S. Air Force Academy. He also received an NROTC scholarship, which provided a “full ride” to one of a number of outstanding universities.

With all due respect to the all-male Air Force Academy, one stroll down Slant Walk convinced Terry. Not only was the Miami campus one of the most beautiful college settings he’d visited, but the female student population he observed left a most positive impression as well.

Where Terry was gregarious, Rich was more reserved.

An avid student of history and politics from as early as his family could remember, Rich was driven by the idea of being in the military. At Louisville’s Southern High School, his leadership skills made him successful as a class officer.

Rich’s talent was clearly demonstrated by his Kentucky congressman’s appointing him to the U.S. Naval Academy. But, like Terry, Rich was also awarded an NROTC scholarship, and Miami was one of the universities on his prospect list.

IDYLLIC COLLEGE LIFE
Among the 2,800 entering freshmen in 1963, with their button-down Gant shirts, were Terry and Rich. Within a couple of weeks, they had introduced themselves to each other during a get-together at Rowan Hall, the NROTC building.

As their friendship grew, they visited each other’s homes in New York and Kentucky. Rick remembers Rich well.

Terry and Rich were never roommates, but they might as well have been. Rich spent enough time in the Beta Theta Pi house with Terry and his roommates that he might have been considered an “honorary Beta.”

By 1965, the U.S. was sending regular combat units to Vietnam, and Terry and Rich felt poised to be in the “right place at the right time.” Their enthusiasm for their Marine commitment remained steadfast. The two’s leadership qualities were recognized their senior year when Terry and Rich were named the Miami NROTC unit’s battalion commander and deputy battalion commander respectively. That made them the top two student officers in charge of all four companies — 272 NROTC undergraduates.

After graduation, Rich was married, and Terry served as his best man. Terry and Sylvia decided to wait.

ON THE WAR FRONT
By December 1967, Terry was in Vietnam as a second lieutenant in the 3rd Force Recon Company, 3rd Recon Battalion of the 3rd Marine Division. He led an eight-man reconnaissance patrol, which had the unenviable job of penetrating the jungles and countryside to determine enemy positions and strength.

Terry’s team and their endeavors were referred to as “Operation Box Score.” Their base camp was in Con Thien, South Vietnam, two miles from the North Vietnam border (DMZ).

Rich Higgins’ first assignment was as platoon commander of 3rd Platoon, Company C, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, leading mine-clearing operations near the DMZ.

Arriving during the monsoon season of mud and muck, Rich and Terry were stationed within 10 miles of each other. They never got together.

On Feb. 16, 1968, during the height of the Tet offensive, Lt. Graves was leading his fourth patrol when they ambushed seven North Vietnamese Army regulars. One of his men was wounded in the encounter, and Graves decided to have the team extracted. By the time help arrived, the men were surrounded by 300 NVA soldiers.

The courage of the eight on the ground and the efforts by the helicopter gunships and aircraft pilots during “Operation Box Score” was among the most well-documented actions in the Vietnam War and resulted in one of the most decorated American military episodes in the 20th century.

The following excerpt from Terry’s Medal of Honor citation, signed by President Richard Nixon, describe Terry’s actions:

“He then began moving the patrol to a landing zone for extraction, when the unit again came under intense fire which wounded two more Marines and Lt. Graves. Refusing medical attention, he once more adjusted air strikes and artillery fire upon the enemy while directing the fire of his men. He led his men to a new landing site into which he skillfully guided the in-coming aircraft and boarded his men while remaining exposed to the hostile fire. Realizing that one of the wounded had not embarked, he directed the aircraft to depart and, along with another Marine, moved to the side of the casualty. Confronted with a shortage of ammunition, Lt. Graves utilized supporting arms and directed fire until a second helicopter arrived. At this point, the volume of enemy fire intensified, hitting the helicopter and causing it to crash shortly after liftoff.

All aboard were killed.”

The family of 2nd Lt. Terrence C. Graves accepted the posthumously awarded Medal of Honor at the White House on Dec. 2, 1969. It is believed Terry is the only Miami graduate to ever receive the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest recognition for military valor.

Once the Oxford campus heard the tragic news, shades in most fraternity houses were pulled down and left that way for three days, Rick recalls. Terry was 22.

Col. William “Rich” Higgins

PEACETIME HORROR
Exactly 20 years to the day after Terry was killed in Vietnam, the world awoke to the devastating news that Lt. Col. William “Rich” Higgins had been kidnapped by a group assumed to be Hezbollah extremists.

He had been on a routine daytime jeep patrol as a member of the United Nations peacekeeping unit in Lebanon when his vehicle was surrounded by armed men who covered his head and whisked him away. Within days, his captors publicly accused Rich of being a CIA spy.

To everyone’s horror, after excruciating months of fear and hope, on July 31, 1989, a tape was received of a limp body, turning at the end of a noose. U.S. military experts, along with his family, believed it was indeed Rich.

On Dec. 22, 1991, an anonymous caller notified the American University Hospital that a body had been dumped along the side of a Beirut road. The next day, U.S. and U.N. physicians confirmed it was Rich.

He was buried at Quantico National Cemetery with a full-honors service normally reserved for general officers. His wife and daughter accepted in his name the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, which is the United States’ highest non-combat related military award and the highest joint service decoration. The Presidential Citizens Medal was bestowed upon him by President George H.W. Bush on March 18, 1992. It is the second-highest civilian award in the U.S., second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In 1997 the U.S. Navy commissioned a guided missile destroyer in Rich’s name. The USS HIGGINS continues to operate today and is homeported in San Diego.

IF ONLY
This fall, during his class’s 50th anniversary year, Medal of Honor recipient Terry Graves will be recognized during Homecoming activities. Rick and his wife, Nancy Armstrong Graves ’70, are planning to attend, along with Terry’s one-time fiancée, Sylvia Beam ’68, now Sylvia Harnesberger, and her husband. The two couples live 30 minutes apart in Atlanta and have become good friends.

In a letter he penned three days before he was killed, Terry told his brother how pleased he was Rick had pledged Beta Theta Pi.

He went on to write, “I miss the hell out of Dad, Mom, you, Kath, and Syl, but God, how the time has gone by. It’ll be good to get back home and forget all that I’ve done and seen. Write often, Rick. Love, Terry.”

Rick Graves ’71 retired last year as vice president for Crystal Cruises. Now that he has more time, he’s considering writing a book about his older brother. Donna Boen ’83 MTSC ’96 is editor of Miamian.