Vietnamese and American representatives pose in front of the Vietnam War-era sign for Camp Reasoner near Da Nang, Vietnam, Sept. 15, 2026, after a ceremony transferring its ownership to the United States. (U.S. Embassy in Vietnam)
Vietnam has given the United States a massive stone-and-concrete sign and guardhouse from a Marine Corps reconnaissance camp near Da Nang, completing an effort begun years ago by Marine veterans in Congress to preserve the Vietnam War artifacts.
The sign bearing the name Camp Reasoner honors 1st Lt. Frank Reasoner, who was killed in combat near Da Nang in 1965 and posthumously became the second Marine to receive the Medal of Honor for actions during the war.
The items were officially handed over to the United States during a Sept. 15 ceremony on the site attended by U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Jennifer Wicks and Vietnamese Vice Foreign Minister Nguyen Minh Hang.
“These artifacts will serve to not only remind Americans of the great service of Lieutenant Reasoner and the honor of the U.S. Marine Corps but also stand as symbols of the cooperation between our two countries and our shared commitment to reconciliation,” Wicks said at the ceremony.
The items will be moved to a warehouse in Vietnam maintained by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, DPAA said in a Sept. 16 news release.
DPAA and its predecessors have been in Vietnam for decades searching for remains of missing service members from the war.
DPAA, the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam and the U.S. State Department declined to comment for this story.
The artifacts could eventually be displayed at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Virginia, according an embassy news release on Sept. 15.
But that remains uncertain.
“A final decision has not been made as to the final disposition of the Camp Reasoner sign and guardhouse,” Keil Gentry, the museum’s director, said by email Wednesday. “We have not made a decision as to whether we are going to accession the sign and guardhouse into the collection.”
Transfer of the artifacts has been years in the making.
Six years ago, a bipartisan group of Marine Corps veterans serving in the U.S. House of Representatives urged then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to begin negotiating with the Vietnamese government to recover the Reasoner sign.
“The hand-lettered stone and concrete sign served as a physical symbol of fallen comrades in arms to all those who entered the camp,” the veteran lawmakers wrote in a letter on Oct. 6, 2020.
The Vietnamese government had set up a protective barrier to preserve the sign, located about three miles west of the Da Nang International Airport in what had become a gravel quarry, the letter said.
“Bringing this sign home, at long last, would not only honor fallen Marines like Lt. Reasoner, but provide an opportunity to continue fostering good will between former adversaries and promote an expanded US-Vietnam partnership,” the veterans wrote.
Camp Reasoner served as the headquarters for the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion and later the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during the war.
Reasoner arrived in South Vietnam in April 1965, and two months later was designated commander of Company A, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion.
On July 12, he was leading an 18-man patrol about 11 miles southwest of Da Nang when they were attacked by a company of roughly 50 to 100 Vietcong fighters.
Reasoner was killed by machine gun fire as he raced to aid a wounded radio operator, according to the citation in the Medal of Honor awarded on Jan. 31, 1967.
