Featured POW/MIA of the Month
The worst tragedies to befall the Special Forces in the Vietnam Conflict took place when the VC overran the Lang Vei Special Forces Camp. The POW/MIA(s) involved in this incident are the POW/MIA(s) of the month.
I have included two bio/incident reports this month. One is from POW Network, the other from Task Force Omega.
CASE SYNOPSIS: LINDEWALD, CHARLES WESLEY JR.
Name: Charles Wesley Lindewald, Jr.
Rank/Branch: E7/US Army Special Forces
Unit: Company C, Detachment A-101, 12th Mobile Strike Force, 5th Special Forces Group
Date of Birth: 30 July 1938
Home City of Record: La Porte IN
Loss Date: 07 February 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 163602N 1064058E (XD795360)
Status (In 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 1
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Personnel in Incident: Dennis L. Thompson; William G. McMurry; Harvey G. Brande; (all released 1973). Kenneth Hanna; Daniel R. Phillips; James W. Holt; James Moreland; Charles Lindewald; (all missing); Eugene Ashley Jr. (killed)
REMARKS: OVERRUN AT SF CAMP
SYNOPSIS: The Lang Vei Special Forces camp in the northwestern corner of South Vietnam along Route 9, a mile and a half from the Laotian border had been established in late December 1966 as a result of the Special Forces Detachment A101 having been moved out of its former Khe Sanh location. It seemed ill fated from the beginning.
In March 1967, one of the worst tragedies to befall the Special Forces CIDG program during the war occurred. U.S. Air Force released napalm ordnance on the nearby village which spewed exploding fire over the camp, landing zone, minefield and village. 135 CIDG and native civilians were killed, and 213 were horribly wounded, burned or disfigured.
Only two months later, on May 4, a Viet Cong night attack on the camp wiped out the Special Forces command group, all in one bunker, and killed the detachment commander and his executive officer, as well as seriously wounding the team sergeant. This attack was a prelude to the larger siege of Khe Sanh, and was a grim reminder of the dangerous neighborhood Special Forces had moved into.
By January 1968, several North Vietnamese Army divisions had encircled the Marine combat base at Khe Sanh, placing the more westerly Lang Vei Special Forces frontier surveillance camp in imminent danger. The camp was occupied by Detachment A101 commanded by Capt. Frank C. Willoughby. Willoughby was rebuilding and reinforcing the camp at the time, while soldiers and dependants from the Kha tribal 33rd Laotian Volunteer Battalion streamed into the camp after being overrun by NVA tanks across the border.
On the evening of January 24, the camp was pounded by mortars in conjunction with a heavy shelling of the Marine Khe Sanh base, which prevented any effective artillery support for Lang Vei. 1Lt. Paul R. Longgrear had only recently arrived with his Hre tribal 12th Mobile Strike Force Company to help shore up defensive firepower.
The influx of the Laotians caused some problems. For example, the Lao battalion commander refused to take orders from the American captain, forcing the Company C commander, LtCol. Daniel F. Schungel, to come to Lang Vei on his first Special Forces assignment on February 6 to provide an officer of equal rank.
Camp strength on February 6 totaled 24 Special Forces, 14 LLDB, 161 mobile strike force, 282 CIDG (Bru and Vietnamese), 6 interpreters and 520 Laotian soldiers, plus a number of civilians.
Shortly after midnight on February 7, 1968, a combined NVA infantry-tank assault drove into Lang Vei. Two PT-76 tanks threatened the outer perimeter of the camp as infantry rushed behind them. SFC James W. Holt destroyed both tanks with shots from his 106mm recoilless rifle. More tanks came around the burning hulks of the first two tanks and began to roll over the 104th CIDG Company's defensive positions. SSgt. Peter Tiroch, the assistant intelligence sergeant, ran over to Holt's position and helped load the weapon. Holt quickly lined up a third tank in his sights and destroyed it with a direct hit. After a second shot at the tank, Holt and Tiroch left the weapons pit just before it was demolished by return cannon fire. Tiroch watched Holt run over to the ammunition bunker to look for some hand-held Light Anti-tank Weapons (LAWs). It was the last time Holt was ever seen.
LtCol. Schungel, 1Lt. Longgrear, SSgt. Arthur Brooks, Sgt. Nikolas Fragos, SP4 William G. McMurry, Jr., and LLDB Lt. Quy desperately tried to stop the tanks with LAWs and grenades. They even climbed on the plated engine decks, trying to pry open hatches to blast out the crews. NVA infantrymen followed the vehicles closely, dusting their sides with automatic rifle fire. One tank was stopped by five direct hits, and the crew killed as they tried to abandon the vehicle. 1Lt. Miles R. Wilkins, the detachment executive officer, left the mortar pit with several LAWs and fought a running engagement with one tank beside the team house without much success.
Along the outer perimeters, the mobile strike force outpost was receiving fire. Both Kenneth Hanna, a heavy weapons specialist, and Charles W. Lindewald, 12th Mobile Strike Force platoon leader, were wounded. Hanna, wounded in the scalp, left shoulder and arm tried to administer first aid to Lindewald. The two were last seen just before their position was overrun. Harvey Brande spoke with them by radio and Hanna indicated that Lindewald was then dead, and that he himself was badly wounded. Daniel R. Phillips, a demolitions specialist, was wounded in the face and was last seen trying to evade North Vietnamese armor by going through the northern perimeter wire.
. NVA sappers armed with satchel charges, tear gas grenades and flamethrowers fought through the 101st, 102nd and 103rd CIDG perimeter trenches and captured both ends of the compound by 2:30 a.m. Spearheaded by tanks, they stormed the inner compound. LtCol. Schungel and his tank-killer personnel moved back to the command bunker for more LAWs. They were pinned behind a row of dirt and rock filled drums by a tank that had just destroyed one of the mortar pits. A LAW was fired against the tank with no effect. The cannon swung around and blasted the barrels in front of the bunker entrance. The explosion temporarily blinded McMurry and mangled his hands, pitched a heavy drum on top of Lt. Wilkins and knocked Schungel flat. Lt. Quy managed to escape to another section of the camp, but the approach of yet another tank prevented Schungel and Wilkins from following. At some point during this period, McMurry, a radioman, disappeared.
The tank, which was shooting at the camp observation post, was destroyed with a LAW. Schungel helped Wilkins over to the team house, where he left both doors ajar and watched for approaching NVA soldiers. Wilkins was incapacitated and weaponless, and Schungel had only two grenades and two magazines of ammunition left. He used one magazine to kill a closely huddled five-man sapper squad coming toward the building. He fed his last magazine into his rifle as the team house was rocked with explosions and bullets. The two limped over to the dispensary, which was occupied by NVA soldiers, and hid underneath it, behind a wall of sandbags.
At some point, Brande, Thompson and at least one Vietnamese interpreter were captured by the North Vietnamese. Thompson was uninjured, but Brande had taken shrapnel in his leg. Brande and Thompson were held separately for a week, and then rejoined in Laos. Joined with them was McMurry, who had also been captured from the camp. The three were moved up the Ho Chi Minh trail to North Vietnam and held until 1973. The U.S. did not immediately realize they had been captured, and carried them in Missing in Action status throughout the rest of the war, although Brande's photo was positively identified by a defector in April 1969 as being a Prisoner of War. A Vietnamese interpreter captured from the camp told Brande later that he had seen both Lindewald and Hanna, and that they both were dead.
Several personnel, including Capt. Willoughby, SP4 James L. Moreland, the medic for the mobile strike force, and Lt. Quan, the LLDB camp commander, were trapped in the underground level of the command bunker. Lt. Longgrear had also retreated to the command bunker. Satchel charges, thermite grenades and gas grenades were shoved down the bunker air vents, and breathing was very difficult. Some soldiers had gas masks, but others had only handkerchiefs or gauze from their first aid packets. The NVA announced they were going to blow up the bunker, and the LLDB personnel walked up the stairs to surrender, and were summarily executed. At dawn, two large charges were put down the vent shaft and detonated, partially demolishing the north wall and creating a large hole through which grenades were pitched.
The bunker defenders used upturned furniture and debris to shield themselves. Willoughby was badly wounded by grenade fragments and passed out at 8:30 a.m. Moreland had been wounded and became delirious after receiving a head injury in the final bunker explosion. Incredibly, the battle was still going on in other parts of the camp.
Aircraft had been strafing the ravines and roads since 1:00 a.m. Throughout the battle, the Laotians refused to participate, saying they would attack at first light. Sfc. Eugene Ashley, Jr., the intelligence sergeant, led two assistant medical specialists, Sgt. Richard H. Allen and SP4 Joel Johnson as they mustered 60 of the Laotian soldiers and counterattacked into Lang Vei. The Laotians bolted when a NVA machine gun crew opened fire on them, forcing the three Americans to withdraw.
Team Sfc. William T. Craig and SSgt. Tiroch had chased tanks throughout the night with everything from M-79 grenade launchers to a .50 caliber machine gun. After it had become apparent that the camp had been overrun, they escaped outside the wire and took temporary refuge in a creek bed. After daylight, they saw Ashley's counterattack force and joined him. The Special Forces sergeants persuaded more defenders fleeing down Route 9 to assist them and tried second, third and fourth assaults. Between each assault, Ashley directed air strikes on the NVA defensive line, while the other Special Forces soldiers gathered tribal warriors for yet another attempt. On the fifth counterattack, Ashley was mortally wounded only thirty yards from the command bunker.
Capt. Willoughby had regained consciousness in the bunker about 10:00 a.m. and established radio contact with the counterattacking Americans. The continual American airstrikes had forced the North Vietnamese to begin withdrawing from the camp. Col. Schungel an d Lt. Wilkins emerged from under the dispensary after it was vacated by the North Vietnamese and hobbled out of the camp. The personnel in the bunker also left in response to orders to immediately evacuate the camp. They carried Sgt. John D. Early, who had been badly wounded by shrapnel while manning the tower, but were forced to leave SP4 Moreland inside the bunker. 1Lt. Thomas D. Todd, an engineer officer in charge of upgrading Lang Vei's airstrip, held out in the medical bunker throughout the battle. That afternoon, he was the last American to pass through the ruined command bunker. He saw Moreland, who appeared to be dead, covered with debris.
Maj. George Quamo gathered a few dozen Special Forces commando volunteers from the MACV-SOG base at Khe Sanh (FOB #3) and led a heroic reinforcing mission into Lang Vei. His arrival enabled the Lang Vei defenders to evacuate the area, many by Marine helicopters in the late afternoon.
Sgt. Richard H. Allen - Survivor
Sfc Eugene Ashley, Jr. - Awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for Lang Vei
Harvey Gordon Brande - Captured - released POW in 1973
SSgt. Arthur Brooks - Survivor
Sfc. William T. Craig - Survivor
Sgt. John D. Early - Survivor
Sgt. Nikolas Fragos - Survivor
Kenneth Hanna - Missing In Action
James William Holt - Missing In Action
SP4 Joel Johnson - Survivor
Charles Wesley Lindewald, Jr. - Missing In Action
1Lt. Paul R. Longgrear - Survivor
SP4 William G. McMurry - Captured - released POW in 1973
James Leslie Moreland - Missing In Action
Daniel Raymond Phillips - Missing In Action
Maj. George Quamo - Killed in Action April 14, 1968
Lt. Quy - Survivor
LtCol. Daniel F. Schungel - appointed deputy commander of the 5th Special Forces
Dennis L. Thompson - Captured - released POW in 1973
SSgt. Peter Tiroch - Survivor
1Lt. Thomas D. Todd - Survivor
1Lt. Miles R. Wilkins - Survivor
Capt. Frank C. Willoughby - Survivor
Dec 29 1998 -- William Phillips, cousin to Daniel Phillips of refno 1040, has written a book: Night of the Silver Stars. He has spent many years researching the loss of his cousin. He states that all 8 men of the 1040 incident were awarded the Silver Star. In fact he claims: There was one Medal of Honor, 2 DSCs, 21 Silver Stars and 3 Bronze Stars with "V" for valor awarded. Some were to the MACV-SOG SF rescuers from Khe Sanh. It is an interesting book for anyone interested in the Battle of Lang Vei.
The Khe Sanh vets have made 7 return trips -- mostly to bring aid to the Bru people. They were witness to the excavation of the Lang Vei Battleground by a backhoe and a team of diggers and sifters. Our missing are not there.
Daniel Phillips' mother tried to contact one of the returnees. She got a letter back from the AG stating he did not wish to communicate with anyone.
Information from POW Network
LINDEWALD, CHARLES WESLEY Name: Charles Wesley Lindewald
Rank/Branch: Master Sergeant /US Army
Unit: Company C, Detachment A-101, 5th Special Forces Group
Date of Birth: 30 July 1938 (La Porte, IN)
Home of Record: La Porte, IN
Date of Loss: 07 February 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 163602N 1064058E (XD795360) [BE SURE TO CLICK BACK BUTTON]
Status in 1973: Missing In Action
Category: 1
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Other Personnel in Incident: Kenneth Hanna; Daniel R. Phillips; James W. Holt; James L. Moreland (missing); Dennis Thompson; William McMurry and Harvey Brande; (released)
REMARKS: OVERRUN AT SF CAMP
SYNOPSIS: In late December 1966, the Lang Vei Special Forces camp was established along Route 9, a mile and a half east of the Laotian border in the northwestern corner of Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam. Special Forces Detachment A101 moved from its former location at Khe Sanh to man the new camp. Over the next year, Viet Cong (VC) guerrillas and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops attacked the camp several times as a prelude to the larger siege of Khe Sanh, and was a grim reminder of the dangerous neighborhood Special Forces had moved into.
By January 1968, several North Vietnamese Army divisions had encircled the Marine base at Khe Sanh, placing the more westerly Lang Vei Special Forces frontier surveillance camp in imminent danger. On the evening of 24 January, the camp was pounded by enemy mortars in conjunction with a heavy shelling of Khe Sanh, which prevented any effective artillery support for Lang Vei.
Camp strength on 6 February totaled 24 Special Forces, including MSgt. Kenneth Hanna, heavy weapons specialist; MSgt. James W. Holt, Senior medical specialist; then SFC Charles W. Lindewald, 12th Mobile Strike Force platoon leader; SSgt. Daniel R. Phillips, demolition's specialist; and SP4 James L. Moreland, medical specialist; SP4 William G. McMurry, radio operator; SFC Dennis L. Thompson and MSgt. Harvey G. Brande. Also at Lang Vei were 14 LLDB, 161 mobile strike force, 282 CIDG (Bru and Vietnamese), 6 interpreters and 520 Laotian soldiers, plus a number of civilians.
Shortly after midnight on 7 February 1968, a combined NVA infantry-tank assault drove into Lang Vei. Two PT-76 tanks threatened the outer perimeter of the camp as infantry rushed behind them. MSgt. James Holt destroyed both tanks with shots from his 106mm recoilless rifle. More tanks came around the burning hulks and began to roll over the 104th CIDG Company's defensive positions. SSgt. Peter Tiroch, who survived this battle, was the assistant intelligence sergeant. He ran over to MSgt. Holt's position and helped load the weapon. James Holt quickly lined up a third tank in his sights and destroyed it with a direct hit. After a second shot at the tank, both men left the weapons pit just before it was demolished by return cannon fire. MSgt. Holt then run to the ammunition bunker to look for hand-held Light Anti-tank Weapons (LAWs). He was last seen uninjured between 0200 and 0230 hours as he was going after M-72 Anti-tank weapons.
Other camp defenders desperately tried to stop the tanks with LAWs and grenades. They even climbed on the plated engine decks, trying to pry open hatches to blast out the crews. NVA infantrymen followed the vehicles closely, dusting their sides with automatic rifle fire. One tank was stopped by five direct hits, and the crew killed as they tried to abandon the vehicle. The detachment executive officer left the mortar pit with several LAWs and fought a running engagement with one tank beside the team house without much success.
In response to the emergency call for assistance, American aircraft arrived on station by 0100 hours, and began strafing the ravines and roads. Their attacks continued throughout the battle.
Along the outer perimeters, the mobile strike force outpost was receiving fire. Both SFC Kenneth Hanna, a heavy weapons specialist, and MSgt. Charles W. Lindewald, 12th Mobile Strike Force platoon leader, had been wounded. While MSgt. Hanna's wounds were to his scalp, left shoulder and arm, he managed to administer first aid to MSgt. Lindewald who had been severely injured by automatic weapons fire in the chest or abdomen. Other team members last saw the two just before their position was overrun. Harvey Brande, who was later captured, reported he spoke by radio to Kenneth Hanna who indicated that Charles Lindewald died, and he himself was badly wounded. SSgt. Daniel Phillips, a demolition's specialist, was also wounded in the face and was last seen trying to evade North Vietnamese armor by going through the northern perimeter wire.
. NVA sappers armed with satchel charges, tear gas grenades and flame-throwers fought through the 101st, 102nd and 103rd CIDG perimeter trenches and successfully captured both ends of the outer compound by 0230 hours. Spearheaded by tanks, the NVA stormed the inner compound. Special Forces personnel moved back to the command bunker for more LAWs. They were pinned behind a row of dirt and rock filled drums by a tank that had just destroyed one of the mortar pits. A LAW was fired against the tank with no effect. Its cannon swung around and blasted the barrels in front of the bunker entrance. The explosion temporarily blinded SP4 McMurry and mangled his hands, while trapping other defenders. At some point during this period, William McMurry, the team's radioman, vanished.
Several personnel, including SP4 James L. Moreland, the medic for the mobile strike force, were trapped in the underground level of the command bunker. Satchel charges, thermite grenades and gas grenades were shoved down the bunker air vents, and breathing inside the bunker became very difficult. Some soldiers had gas masks, but others had only handkerchiefs or gauze from their first aid packets.
When the NVA announced they were going to blow up the bunker, the LLDB personnel walked up the stairs to surrender, and were summarily executed. At dawn, two large charges were put down the vent shaft and detonated, partially demolishing the north wall and creating a large hole through which grenades were pitched. The bunker defenders used upturned furniture and debris to shield themselves. By 0830 hours, SP4 Moreland, who had been wounded, became delirious after receiving a head injury in the final bunker explosion. Incredibly, the battle was still going on in other parts of the camp.
The tank, which was shooting at the camp observation post, was finally destroyed with a LAW. At some point MSgt. Brande, SFC Thompson and at least one Vietnamese interpreter were captured by the North Vietnamese. Dennis Thompson was uninjured, while Harvey Brande had taken shrapnel in his leg. Originally these two men were held separately for a week, then held together in Laos. SP4 McMurry, who had also been captured from the camp, was brought into the same compound. Eventually the three were moved up the Ho Chi Minh trail to North Vietnam and held there until 1973. The US did not know they had been captured. In fact, all three soldiers were listed Missing in Action throughout the war, even though a defector positively identified MSgt. Brande's photo in April 1969 as being a Prisoner of War. Dennis Thompson was released on 5 March 1973; Harvey Brande and William McMurry were released on 16 March 1973. While in captivity, a Vietnamese interpreter who was also captured at the camp, told Harvey Brande that he saw both Charles Lindewald and Kenneth Hanna, and he believed they both were dead.
Special Forces personnel chased tanks throughout the night with everything from M-79 grenade launchers to a .50 caliber machine gun. After it became clear that the camp had been overrun, they escaped outside the wire and took temporary refuge in a creek bed. After daylight, they saw an American-lead counterattack force and joined it. The Special Forces sergeants persuaded more defenders fleeing down Route 9 to assist them and tried second, third and fourth assaults. Between each assault, airstrikes were directed on to the NVA defensive line, while the other Special Forces soldiers gathered tribal warriors for yet another attempt. The continual American airstrikes forced the North Vietnamese to begin withdrawing from the camp.
The personnel in the bunker also escaped and evaded in response to orders to immediately evacuate the camp. They were forced to leave SP4 Moreland inside the bunker. That afternoon when the last American passed through the ruined command bunker, he saw James Moreland, who appeared to be dead, covered with debris.
A rescue force gathered a few dozen Special Forces commando volunteers from the MACV-SOG base at Khe Sanh (FOB #3) and led a heroic reinforcing mission into Lang Vei. Their arrival enabled the Lang Vei defenders to evacuate the area, many by Marine helicopters in the late afternoon. A few days later when US forces once again were in control of Lang Vei, a thorough and extensive search of the camp and surrounding area was conducted. However, no trace of the five Special Forces sergeants could be found. Kenneth Hanna, James Holt, Charles Lindewald, James Moreland, and Daniel Phillips were immediately listed Missing In Action.
If these Special Forces team members died of their wounds, the enemy certainly knows where their remains are buried, and each man has the right to have them returned to his family, friends and country. On the other hand, if these men were not killed when Lang Vei was overrun, but merely unconscious, their fate, like that of other Americans who remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia could be quite different.
Since the end of the Vietnam War well over 21,000 reports of American prisoners, missing and otherwise unaccounted for have been received by our government. Many of these reports document LIVE America Prisoners of War remaining captive throughout Southeast Asia TODAY. Military men in Vietnam were called upon to fight in many dangerous circumstances, and they were prepared to be wounded, killed or captured. It probably never occurred to them that they could be abandoned by the country they so proudly served.
Information from Task Force Omega
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