John J. Helble

John J. Helble

Ashburn - John J. Helble, age 84, a retired Foreign Service Officer, died November 20, 2018 at the Adler Center of Aldie, Virginia. He lived in Falls Church, Virginia before moving to Round Hill, Virginia in 1986.

Mr. Helble, born in Wisconsin, graduated from the University of Wisconsin Summa cum Laude in 1956 and joined the Foreign Service a few months later. During his over 28 years in the Foreign Service he was posted in Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela, Saigon and Hue, Vietnam, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Dhaka, Bangladesh. He also served as the State Department's advisor to the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Command, in Honolulu. He had multiple tours in Washington, including as Special Assistant to several Assistant Secretaries of the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs and as a Foreign Service inspector. He spoke Spanish, Vietnamese and Indonesian.

Mr. Helble was U.S. Consul in Hue where the 1963 Buddhist uprising began that led to the military overthrow of President Ngo Dinh Diem's government six months later. The State Department instructed Mr. Helble to grant asylum to the former President's brother, Ngo Dinh Can, who had controlled Central Vietnam for some years. Mr. Helble evacuated Mr. Can to Saigon, where the Embassy turned him over to the new government. Mr. Can was tried and executed some months later.

In 1975 Mr. Helble was detailed to the State Department's Operations Center to coordinate the Department's role in evacuating American citizens and others prior to the communist takeover of Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Saigon. Tens of thousands of Americans, foreign diplomats and Vietnamese staff of U.S. agencies, along with a number of at risk anti-Communist Vietnamese were successfully removed. To Mr. Helble's lasting regret, many other Vietnamese nationals had to remain behind.

He received the State Department Commendable Service Award in 1957, the Superior Honor Award in 1962, a group Superior Honor Award in 1967 and the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal in 1985.

After retirement he developed and operated a commercial vineyard for 18 years. He managed and became president of the Virginia Winery Cooperative in Culpeper, Virginia. He also served on the Virginia Governor's Wine Growers Advisory Board.

He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Joan Helble, his son Stuart Helble of Round Hill, Virginia, his daughter Ramona Helble of Irving, Texas and five grandchildren.

Arrangements by Hall Funeral Home, Inc. Please visit www.hallfh.com to express online condolences to the family.