Vietnam Vet Waits Graveside For Fallen Sailor’s Family 40 Years Later

Agustine Casares is searching for a group of people he’s never met.

The Vietnam veteran spent all day Thursday at Fort Bliss National Cemetery hoping to meet the family of Jose Hernandez, Jr., a fellow sailor who died when they were in the service 40 years ago.

“I’ve been looking for them for about 15 years and I know they don’t have a clue who I am, but to me they’re family,” said Casares. “They need to know that somebody from 40 years ago still cares about Jose. I’ve carried him, I’ve grieved for him. All this time.”

Casares spent four hours on the rode from Albuquerque to El Paso. He said it was a rough ride. “This is not easy. This is something that, as you’re driving down the road, you’re saying ‘I should turn back. This is too painful, I should turn back'”.

But Casares didn’t turn back. Instead, he arrived at the grave site at 8 a.m. and stayed near his fallen friend’s elegant white tombstone until sundown.

“My heart was pounding as I walked around (the cemetery) trying to find him…my knees were shaking, my hands even now, are shaking,” he said. “When I saw his name and I had finally found him after all of these years it was like…like pieces of a puzzle coming together that had been scattered for 40 years”.

Hernandez died when he was just 19 years old. He had accidentally fallen off one of the Navy’s boats and hit his head on a pier. Casares was a 25 year old Assistant Officer at the time. “These are things you never forget. These are things that shape your life,” he said.

Casares said it took years of counseling at his local VA center to work up the courage to visit the grave site. He came hoping that fate would step in– hoping Hernandez’s family would stop by. “I have a need to talk to them. I would tell them that somebody else carries the weight…the sorrow… for Jose.”

Minutes after ABC-7 first aired Casares’ story, the family of Jose Hernandez, Jr. contacted the station. They said they would be glad to meet the man who served alongside Hernandez 40 years ago.