VIETNAM & LAOS
1961 - 1965
VIETNAM & LAOS
1961 - 1965
|
30 May 1961 near Hmong Laos Air America
Charles Mateer
| On 29 March 1961, Clarence J. Abadie led a flight of 16 UH-34s from Bangkok to Air America's new forward operating base at Udorn in northeastern Thailand, 40 miles sough of Vientiane. The helicopter forces soon became involved in supporting Hmong forces engaged in a fierce battle with the Pathet Lao at Pa Dong. On 30 May, the first Air America helicopter pilots died in Laos, when Charles Mateer and Walter Wizbowski crashed in bad weather while trying to land supplies to the besieged Hmong. |
Saigon Blast Kills Local Man, 3 Missing June 1965
|
June 1965 Vietnam
KIA |
One Other From City Injured By Larry Jenkins, Staff Writer, The Union Leon Forcum, civilian employe at McClellan Air Force Base, was killed, three other Sacramento workers are missing, and one injured following an explosion the ripped open a floating restaurant on the Saigon River Thursday night. Those missing are: Leo D. Nelson, 210 Nimitz St.; Floyd R. McKinney, 6544 Gray, Lock Lane and John M. Kilzer, 6335 McMahon Drive. A Fair Oakks man, Alfred H. Charamza, of 8001 Sunset Ave., received injuries to his hip and leg and was taken to a hospital in Saigon. Lives IN Hope "I don't believe he's dead and I still have hope they can find him!" said Mrs. Leon Forcum on 7801 Lorin Ave., following the news that her husband had been killed in the worst terrorist bombing Saigon has seen since the start of the Vietnamese War . Two hugh explosions resounded simultaneously from the river bank. Witnesses said there may be as many as 50 persons dead. The restaurant, My Cahn, was crowded and many persons were on the riverside boulevard nearby, United Press Internationals said.
CIVIL EMPLOYEES
WIFE AND SONS
MISSING MEN |
|
May 1962 Ban Me Thout MISSIONARY Archie Mitchell
|
Archie Mitchell was born May 1, 1918 in Franklin, Nebraska. After
he graduated from high school, he attended Sipson Bible College and Nyack
Missionary College. Two days before Christmas 1947, Mitchell and his bride,
Betty Patzke Mitchell, sailed for Indo-China for two terms of missionary
service with the Vietnamese people at Dalat. Mitchell's third term
assignment was the Leprosarium at Ban Me Thuot, South Vietnam.
The Ban Me Thuot Leprosarium was located in dense jungle terrain in Darlac Province, South Vietnam, near the provincial capitol of Ban Me Thuot. The Leprosarium was jointly financed by The Christian and Missionary Alliance, the Mennonite Central Committee and American Leprosy Missions, Inc. There were 56 Alliance church groups in the areas outlying Ban Me Thuot in 1962. The Leprosarium had a staff of nine, including Rev. Archie Mitchell, the administrative officer; Dr. Ardel Vietti, a surgeon, Daniel A. Gerber, and nurses, Misses Craig, Deets, Kingsbury and Wilting. There were two others on staff; also, the Mitchell's four children lived at the Leprosarium. Late afternoon on Wednesday, May 30, 1962, a group of about 12 armed Viet Cong entered the Leprosarium compound and abducted Dan Gerber, Dr. Vietti and Rev. Mitchell. The nurses were sternly lectured on their betrayal of the Vietnamese people and assured that they deserved immediate death, but were not molested or abducted. Mrs. Mitchell and her four children were not harmed. The VC ransacked all the buildings for anything they could use - linens, medicines, clothing and surgical instruments. About 10:00 p.m., the Viet Cong finally left, taking their three prisoners with them. When the three were captured, the U.S. pledged all of its resources in order to see that everything possible was done to get them back safely in 1962. At the time, U.S. and South Vietnamese intelligence discovered their probable location, but were never able to rescue the three. Reports have continued to surface on them through the years since 1962. Some of the members of their families believe them to be still alive. Now, 25 years later, Gerber, Vietti and Mitchell are still missing. They were not military personnel, nor were they engaged in highly paid jobs relating to the war. They were just there to help sick Vietnamese people. Although the U.S. has given the Vietnamese information on Gerber, Vietti and Mitchell, the Vietnamese deny any knowledge of them. |
|
March 7, 1964 Vietnam SS BUNKER HILL
M.J. Abraham
Captain*
|
Tanker exploded, burned, and sank. Old Navy sunken bomb suspected. |
U.S. Aid Mission's director slain
|
July 23, 1965 Saigon DIRECTOR Jack E. Ryan
|
HIGH U.S. AID SLAIN IN SAIGON by Peter Arnett - Saigon AP A bald bespectacled American aid official was sought by police Saturday in the slaying of his chief and an attractive Vietnamese woman. A huge dragnet spread through Saigon's slums for the suspect, identified by police as Robert Kimball, 36, a Utah native. Vietnamese police distributed passport-size photographs of him to passerbys and plainclothes agents. His chief, Jack E. Ryan, 44, head of the U.S. Aid Mission's public safety division, and the woman, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hai, an employe of Ryan's office, were shot Friday night outside Ryan's villa. Ryan, a former FBI agent, directed about 100 Americans giving police training to the Vietnamese. Ryan had served 10 years in Southeast Asia and had returned a day before the shooting from Washington consultations. Vietnamese sources said Mrs. Hai was the wife of a Vietnamese air force officer and the mother of four children. Friends said she and the suspect had been close friends. Police sources said the slaying apparently was motivated by a desire for personal revenge. Kimball's old haunts were searched and his friends questioned as Vietnamese police and American security men attempted to trace the suspect. The U.S. Embassy also was investigating. The suspect's motorcycle was found in a quarter between downtown Saigon and the Chinese part of the capital. A 16-year-old Vietnamese student, Miss Chan Thi Lai, told a newsman that Mrs. Hai and Kimball were friends of her mother and had been frequent visitors to her home. They had been there Friday night, she said, and left about 9 p.m. Police said Ryan was shot in the chest and head as he stepped from his car in front of his home at about 11 p.m. A doctor said that either shot would have been fatal. Mrs. Hai, investigators said, apparently was in Ryan's car and was shot as she tried to run away. Ryan is survived by his widow and two children, none of whom is in Saigon. In addition to his aid job, Ryan was personal adviser to Col. Pham Van Lieu, chief of the Vietnamese national police service. As such, he was one of the ranking U. S. advisers in South Viet Nam. The fatal shooting followed by about three weeks a new Saigon crackdown against fraternization between Americans and Vietnamese women. Under new rules issued by the government of Premier Nguyen Cao Ky, police have been arresting any Vietnamese woman seen in a taxi with an American man, and sometimes have picked up Vietnamese women walking with Americans. The quietly circulated rules have called for arrest of women "dressed in flashy clothing" seen with Americans. Police are also regularly raiding bars, and U.S. military policemen frequently order U.S. servicemen out of bars. The new crackdown is reminiscent of a similar drive by the defunct Ngo Dinh Diem regime in 1963 to stamp out fraternization. U.S. and Vietnamese officials are pondering the problem of jurisdiction over the handling of Ryan case. Kimball has diplomatic status because he is employed by the U.S. Aid Mission, U.S. sources said. His diplomatic status, if invoked would put him into American hands if he is captured. U.S. officials doubt that the Vietnamese will contest this, but no commitment has yet been made. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," one official source said. (Tacoma News Tribune, Tacoma WA, Saturday, 24 Jul 1965)
VIET POLICE HOLD U.S. AID FOR SLAYING Kimball had been seeing Mrs. Hai for two years and believed she was in love with him. But he said he noticed a change in her when Ryan returned to Saigon after a visit to the United States. Kimball encountered the couple in Ryan's driveway Friday evening. Ryan suggested they discuss their differences at another time. Kimball pulled Mrs. Hai out of Ryan's car and slapped her. Then Ryan punched him and he fell backward. Kimball pulled out his revolver and fired at Tyan when he saw Ryan reach for a pocket where he normally carried a pistol. He kept firing when Mrs. Hai ran toward him screaming. Kimball, who was transferred from municipal to the national police, said he buried the weapon in a flower pot at his home and spent Saturday in a forest six miles south of Saigon while a massive manhunt was on for him. He gave himself up Sunday. The United States and Viet Nam have no status of forces agreement spelling out jurisdiction over cases such as this. Technically Kimball has limited diplomatic immunity, but the U.S. government was expected to waive jurisdiction because of circumstances of the killing. Kimball is a reserve foreign service officer and served here in the logistic branch of the police advisory mission. Kimball is estranged from his wife, who lived in Salt Lake City UT with their 7-year-old son, Kim. Mrs. Kimball said the couple separated about two years ago, just before Kimball went to Viet Nam. (Tacoma News Tribune, Tacoma WA, Monday, 26 Jul 1965)
|
|
Sept. 22, 1965 Saigon Vietnam SS Bengal Mail George Bogdanovich
|
|
November 4,1965 Vietnam Freelance Georgette "Dicky" Chappelle
|
Killed Nov. 4 when a Viet Cong land mine exploded as she covered a large-scale U.S. Marine operation. She is the earliest known female correspondent to die in the Vietnam fighting. A daring pilot, parachutist and war correspondent-photographer, she covered World War II, the 1956 Hungarian revolution, the 1960 Algerian uprising, Lebanon, the battles of Fidel Castro in Cuba and the fighting in Vietnam and Laos. She was born Georgette Meyer in 1918 and had married and divorced Anthony Chappelle, a freelance journalist.
*Journalists who died covering the news in Vietnam*
|
SS EXPRESS BALTIMORE Crewmen Captured
|
Dec. 1965 Vietnam SS EXPRESS BALTIMORE
Ruben Bailon
|
O'Laughlin and Bailon went ashore in Qhi Nhon or Da Nang in order to fetch the Captain, as the ship had received orders to shift to another location. They were apparently captured. O'Laughlin's remains were found in a grave at Hon Gan Point. Bailon is still listed on the Library of Congress database as POW/MIA. |
|
This site is done by Volunteers...We are making every attempt to place
correct information online. Mistakes happen....
Please contact
Steve Jacobson
if you do find an error, or wish to add more information or a remembrance... or A PICTURE!!!!
All Research is done by: Darilee Bednar and items will be added as she finds them.
this page supported by 3rd St Book Exchange, 1615 3rd St, Marysville WA
all rights reserved @2005