Written by Joseph Galloway
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Commentary: Fallen brothers found - and lost
By Joseph L. Galloway | McClatchy Newspapers
As with so much in life and in death, there was news this week that was joyous and sad and bittersweet all at once for the small community of the Vietnam War’s band of brothers of the Ia Drang Valley.
Early in the morning of December 28, 1965, a U.S. Army Huey helicopter, tail number 63-08808, lifted off from the huge grassy airfield at the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) base at An Khe in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam.
Two experienced pilots, CWO Jesse Phelps of Boise, Idaho, and CWO Kenneth Stancil of Chattanooga, Tenn., were at the controls. Behind them in the doors were crew chief Donald Grella of Laurel, Neb., and door gunner Thomas Rice Jr. of Spartanburg, S.C. All four were already veterans of the fiercest air assault battle of the war, fought the previous month in the Ia Drang.
Huey 808 was one of 10 birds in a platoon of A Company, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, led by Capt. Ed (Too Tall to Fly) Freeman. It was bound on a short, routine flight down Route 19 to an infantry field position just over the high pass between An Khe and the port city of Qui Nhon.
It was what Army aviators called an "ash and trash mission," hauling cases of C-rations, ammunition and other essential supplies to a company of grunts preparing for an air assault mission.
Normally, all missions were flown by at least two helicopters, but this one was so brief and so routine and along a route so well known and marked by the center white line of a familiar highway that Capt. Freeman and his boss, Maj. Bruce (Ol' Snake) Crandall, already at the Landing Zone with the rest of A Company's 20 helicopters, agreed to waive that requirement and let 808 fly alone.
With that, 808 flew off the face of the earth. It disappeared without a word on the radio of distress or trouble. The helicopter was gone, and a massive search effort began almost immediately and continued for months, both as an organized and methodical search and by individual Huey pilots who flew anywhere near that route.
For weeks, they combed the rugged jungle hills on both sides of the road and on both sides of the mountain pass. Choppers hovered over every break in the tree cover peering down if they could see or sending crewmen rappelling down ropes to look around clearings that were not easily checked from the air.
They found nothing. The Huey and its four crewmen had vanished.
The families of the crewmen joined the ranks of those who wait for news, for hope, for some closure of an open wound. More than 1,600 American servicemen are still listed as missing in action in Vietnam.
This week, the Department of Defense liaison officers who work with MIA families called Ol’ Snake Crandall and surviving family members of the four missing crewmen to confirm that after 43 years, search teams following one of thousands of leads had found and positively identified the wreckage of Huey 808.
In what amounts to almost an archaeological dig the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC-MIA) team assigned to this lead also recovered dog tags, other personal artifacts and some human remains. After so long a time in the acid soil of Vietnam, that usually means bone fragments and maybe a tooth or two. Often that adds up to no more than will fill a small handkerchief.
The remains will now be flown to the Central Identification Library in Hawaii and every effort will be made through DNA testing to identify them and attach a name to them.
"They told us it could take several months to complete that process," said Shirley Haase of Omaha, Neb., the sister of crew chief Don Grella. "I only wish my mother was here for this news. She waited for so long."
The men of Huey 808 will be coming home at last. Grieving mothers and fathers have died waiting for news that never came. Siblings have grown old. Their buddies have never forgotten and never rested in pressing for a resolution to this case.
Too Tall Ed Freeman and Ol' Snake Crandall, his wingman and boss, never missed an opportunity to ask questions or get a little pushy with a government official, even a president of the United States or a North Vietnamese Army general, in seeking an answer to the mystery.
Too Tall Ed died last summer in a Boise, Idaho, hospital. In their final farewell visit, he and Crandall, both Medal of Honor recipients, talked about Huey 808, and Bruce promised Ed that he’d keep pushing the search as long as he lived.
A week ago, the Ia Drang fraternity buried Doc Randy Lose at the National Cemetery in Biloxi, Miss. Doc was the medic of the Lost Platoon of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th U.S. Cavalry at Landing Zone X-Ray in November 1965.
Doc's old company commander, Col. (ret.) John Herren, was there. So was Sgt. Earnie Savage, who inherited command of the Lost Platoon after Lt. Henry Herrick and three more-senior sergeants were killed in the first 10 minutes of battle after the 30-man platoon was cut off and surrounded by hundreds of North Vietnamese soldiers.
In all, nine men were killed and 13 were wounded in the opening minutes of a struggle for survival that lasted 27 hours for the cut-off Americans. Doc Lose used up all the bandages and kept plugging wounds with small rolls of C-Ration toilet paper. He crawled from man to man under intense enemy fire, was wounded twice himself and kept every one of the 13 wounded alive during the longest day and night of their lives.
Doc earned a Distinguished Service Cross for his actions, and his battalion commander, Lt. Gen. (ret) Hal Moore, and I did everything we could to get that upgraded to the Medal of Honor we think he deserved.
Doc Lose died last month, killed by the Vietnam War just as certainly as if he'd been shot in the head by a sniper during those 27 hours with the Lost Platoon. You see, my friend Doc Lose came home from Vietnam a different man. He carried wounds no one but other combat veterans could see. Doc carried the battlefield memories of suffering and death and killing, and they never let him rest.
All that's over now. Doc has crossed the river to be with some other great soldiers. The rest of us will be along soon enough, Doc, so pop smoke when you hear us inbound. The goofy grape (purple smoke) will work just fine.
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Comments
Trust me, you are never the same ...ever!
The Other Things We Carry
By-Ron Leonard
It's been 35 years since a Huey's whine
And midnight missions in the nick of time
It's been 35 years since a claymore mine
And ground attacks so clear in your mind.
And only yesterday it was 69
We carried Ammo, and Rockets, and beer, and mail
We carried body bags that would make you wail
We carried friends in our arms, as we turned pale
We carried buckets of water to wash out blood stale
We carried medals of valor for feats unbelieved
We carried purple hearts for wounds we received
But most of all we carried each other
Today we carry other things, some real, some imagined
We carry cancer of every kind known to man
Agent Orange poisoning,
and malaria,
and Lymphomia,
and Diabetes,
and Hepatitis C,
And many still have PTSD.
We carry arms with no hands,
and legs with no feet,
and scars both mental and real.
We carry crutches and walkers,
and wheelchairs and canes,
with honor its no big deal.
We carry horror stories of the Veterans Administration,
of six months waits,
and lack of funds,
and shoddy care,
of indifferent employees,
and crummy food,
and broken promises
and downright lies.
But we still carry each other
We carry memories from the past,
and pictures of our youth,
and through it all still have our dignity.
For many it is all we have.
Now and then, there are times when panic will set in
and we have hideous dreams,
And people squeal, they twitch and make moaning sounds,
and cover their heads and say "Dear God",
and hug the pillow and cringe and beg for the dreams to stop,
and make stupid promises to themselves and God and their wives,
hoping they will all go away, but they don't.
But we still carry each other.
We carry the weight of shattered dreams,
and broken marriages,
and deformed children with insidious wounds,
and twisted faces,
and deformed legs,
and broken spines, lost for all time.
We carry the thoughts of the future,
of honor and duty,
and pride, and tradition.
We carry fear for our children in far off lands,
The outcome can only be in Gods hands
The midnight runs as the Huey whines,
The rescue missions in the nick of time,
The muffled blast of a claymore mine,
And only yesterday it was 69.
But we still carry each other.
Thank you, Mr. Galloway, and you, Mr. Yon, for publishing the story of these "vanished" soldiers, who are thankfully vanished no longer.
And to Ron, whose comment and poetry I also read, I would like to say that I am endeavoring to finish my B.A. (this is my last quarter) in order to serve veterans. I am applying to the V.A., and you have my word that I will not become one of those indifferent souls, somehow changed by years of sitting at the same desk, allowing brave men to turn into mere numbers before their eyes. If you come in, I'll listen. If your buddies come in with a question, I'll hunt down the answer. Next year I plan to apply to the MSW program at UW Seattle, in order to go into PTSD and mental health care work with veterans. There remain many who do still care a great deal. You have served me; now, it is my turn to serve all of you.
Take care, everyone.
My dad served with 5/7HQ Air Cav in An Khe 8/66-8/67.
Thanks for Mr. Galloway's update, and for the great work you do!
Sincerely,
R. Esquivel
John Talbott
3rd Platoon Leader, Co. A, 1/7
1969-1970
Ron Leonard, your poem brought me to tears. My husband was in VN during the Tet Offensive and died in 1975 at the age of 42. He had pancreatic cancer and fought a battle of a different kind against that disease for 5 years. They finally admitted about 12 years ago that it was from Agent Orange. He has been gone almost 34 years now - will be on May 9th. He had also served during the Korean War (yes, I know I'm suppose to say Conflict - but to me war is war.)
Michael I'm so grateful for all the truths you bring to us through your writings. You are a hero in my book for going to places on your own that other journalist dare not go. Thank you.
Marjorie from NC
Semper Fi!
The Brother I Never Knew.
I was only a kid when my half brother came to visit... 5 or 6. It was the only time I saw him except a year earlier when we travelled down to Ft Polk LA before he went over the first time. I only remember this big black haired GI Joe. He gave me a really cool stiletto, which I promptly stuck in shin trying to stick it in a cereal box.
I don't know what unit he was in, or where. I do know the volunteered for the 2nd and third trips. I wish I'd known him more. I never had a brother till I met him... he was from my dad's first marriage and they lived a long ways off.
Now I'm old, and I recently made email contact with one of his full brothers. But was my hero as a kid. Got my sense of duty from what I imagined his must have been. Joined the navy at 17, in 77. Only did 20 though. Never had to fight, but would have then, and would now if needed. I work here in the middle east, doing what I can to support the real heros.
God Bless all you who served when it wasn't easy, or popular.
DDW
"Garry Owen", God Bless those brave men.
I have read both books, written by Hal Moore and Joe Galloway.
Here in Finland the story of Ia Drang battle bacame known beside the movie.
Most leaders try hard to gain the respect of the men they lead. They do all the wrong things to gain their loyalty, when all it takes is very basic. TAKE CARE OF YOUR MEN, AND THEY WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU!! Show them you care for their welfare, stand up for them come hell and high water, and you will have most most loyal men under you. Capt Ed, and his Jr. officers and NCOS had the formula.
Home for Easter.
Thanks Mike
Take care
I know exactly how the families are feeling as my brother Capt. Herbert C. Crosby, MIA 1970, Firebird 91 of the 71st Assault Helicopter Company of the 501st Battaltion at Chu Lai (Huey gunship pilot) remains were officially identified Nov. 2006, buried in Arlington May 2007.
These brave men and women are and never were forgotten for their courage and for some, the ultimate sacrifice.
God Bless all who continue to faithfully work to find and identify our fallen heroes, and their families. Marylou
Tom Williams, Jr
USN, VietNam '67-'68
One thing held true throughout and I saw it on their eyes when they recalled their experiences. It was just like you described Joe, the horror, the horror of war shone through. It made think about all the men women who have taken on the mantle of warrior so that we may never have to know the horror of war in own backyards. Even though I was in the Air Force for six years I do not consider myself a member of this group of heroes.
I never understood the military until I joined in '75 and began meeting and talking with folks that experienced that horror. There were still plenty of active duty veterans of the Vietnam War at that time and many where loath to speak candidly about their experiences, but somehow I seemed to bring it out of them if I took the time to really listen to them. They always wanted to recall the good times they had, the crazy stunts and antics people do when under such great stress. But invariably you see dark clouds roll over them when they recalled the demise of a friend or team member.
It was those experiences that got me to thinking about how much this country owes to every man and woman who takes on the duty of warrior. Average people with extraordinary will who take on the horror and face it down! We as citizens of this great nation owe these people a debt that has never been paid in my humble estimation!
Hooah, Semper FI, Damn the Torpedos, and Let'em Fly
Peace be unto you and yours, fellow warriors!
GOD SPEED THOSE GONE.....GOD BLESS THOSE LEFT!!
Tell me why people not prepared to die or risk for their freedom are allowed to vote and choose a government that might give away or allow its power to protect its people to wane. A governments first duty is to its own people first and foremost. Yet in Canada or the US we give everyone by virtue of being born here or immigrating the right to chose the government of the day. What have we done to deserve it or defend it?
Give to your country, serve your nation, which means to others, your people... then you will have earned the right to vote.
Whenever there are happy/sad stories like this that need telling - Joe will tell them. To the families of these four fine Americans, I send my sympathy and respect.
Interestingly, I just finished reading the biography of George Washington by Washington Irving. It seems that the U.S.A. has a long tradition of not taking care of our military like they should be taken care of...let's, one by one, change that.
God Bless those fine crewman who flew the slicks and those who pounded the ground in the jungles and fought charlie as a great brave team!. I will never forgot your sacrifice.
The news today of the Navy Seals rescuing the American sea captain.... the bravery and dedication continues and I'm so proud!
We never forget - God bless you Doc Lose.
Semper Fi
HAND SALUTE!
I work with many retired veterans, from Vietnam to the current war, and it never ceases to amaze me the quiet strength and deep bonds these men and women carry within themselves.
God Bless our Armed Forces.
In all due respect, to find your answer you need only to look to the US Constitution.
The government does not own it's citizens.
May God bless their families.
Brings back old memories from the 11th Air Assault to my pre-deployment and later sleeping with our guns ships on the perimiter at An Khe for the arrival of the 1st Calvary Division.
May God bless one and all.
Raider 23/24 64-65
68/69 1st Cav in Ashau Valley
I wait with baited breath...
To those that have served and suffered a dear cost, thank you. I will always remember and honor your sacrifice.
but I saw enough to understand what it takes. Rest easy Doc. Amen.
Thanks Joe, from all of us who came back and for all of those who didn't.
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