McMILLAN, ISIAH R. "IKE"

Name: Isiah R. "Ike" McMillan
Rank/Branch: E4/US Army
Unit: Company B, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry, 196th Light Infantry Brigade
Date of Birth: (ca 1948)
Home City of Record: Gretna FL
Date of Loss: 11 March 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 153740N 1081647E (BT085295)
Status (in 1973): Released POW
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground

Other Personnel In Incident: Thomas J. Davis (released POW); Porter E. Calloway
(missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 30 June 1990 from one or more of the
following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with
POW/MIA families, published sources, including data from "The Survivors" by
Zalen Grant, pp. 94-98, interviews.

REMARKS: 730316 RELSD BY PRG

SYNOPSIS: SGT Porter E. Calloway was on his next to last month in Vietnam.
Corporal Isiah R. "Ike" McMillan had just returned from R & R. SGT Thomas J.
"Tom" Davis was one of the new guys in Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st
Infantry.

In March 1968, members of 196th Bravo were sent deep into the bush around Happy
Valley in South Vietnam. Setting up on Hill 407, Que Son Valley, Quang Tri
Province, two platoons went on Search and Destroy; another line platoon and the
six-man weapons platoon stayed on the hill with the company commander. Before
lunch, a platoon radioed that it had walked into a thirty-man ambush, and that
the platoon leader had been shot in the stomach. (A binocular search of the
platoon location revealed that it was much more than 30 men.)

Leaving the weapons platoon (with McMillan and Davis and Calloway) on the hill,
the company commander mobilized the line platoon to go to the assistance of the
ambushed platoon, and ordered the two S & D platoons to merge. The weapons
platoon was left without a radio. When a mortar attack commenced on the hill,
the weapons platoon abandoned its position on the hill to seek cover on lower
ground. Three men left by the east side and three went down the west side of the
hill. As they had no radio, they were in peril both from the enemy, the troops
below, and overhead spotter planes and support strike aircraft.

Davis, McMillan and Calloway, having gone down the east side of the hill, ran
into a machine gun ambush. Davis, McMillan and Calloway were together, and began
to retreat. Calloway was a short-timer and in a panic. He jumped up and started
to run and was hit in the thigh. The others bandaged his leg and continued to
move toward a small house at the edge of the rice paddy they were in. By the
time they reached the hooch, Calloway was in shock from loss of blood. They
evaded for several hours here until the Vietnamese smoked them out with gas
grenades. The three were captured and taken away as prisoners of the Viet Cong.

By late night, Calloway was still bleeding. By morning, he was panicked because
he couldn't breathe. Davis tried to help him, but his captors stopped him. When
the guard understood Calloway was in crisis, he got help and took Calloway to a
table where he died. McMillan reported during his debrief that they were about 1
1/2 kilometers northeast of the Fire Support base hill, and that the Vietnamese
buried Calloway 50-75 meters east of this position near three buildings.

The U.S. maintained Porter E. Calloway in Missing in Action status. His
classification was never changed to that of Prisoner of War. During the period
he was maintained missing, he was advanced in rank to Staff Sergeant.

McMillan and Davis were held captives in Happy Valley and other camps in the
South until they were moved north in 1971. For Americans captured in South
Vietnam, life was brutally difficult. Primarily, these men suffered from disease
induced by an unfamiliar and inadequate diet - dysentery, edema, skin fungus and
eczema. The inadequate diet coupled with inadequate medical care led to the
deaths of many.

Besides dietary problems, these POWs had other problems. They were moved
regularly to avoid being in areas that would be detected by U.S. troops, and
occasionally found themselves in the midst of U.S. bombing strikes. Supply lines
to the camps were frequently cut off, and when they were, POWs and guards alike
suffered. Unless they were able to remain in one location long enough to grow
vegetable crops and tend small animals, their diet was limited to rice and what
they could gather from the jungle.

In addition to the primitive lifestyle imposed on these men, their Viet Cong
guards could be particularly brutal in their treatment. For any minor
infraction, including conversation with other POWs, the Americans were
psychologically and physically tortured. American POWs brought back stories of
having been buried to the neck; held for days in a cage with no protection from
insects and the environment; having had water and food withheld; being shackled
and beaten. The effects of starvation and torture frequently resulted in
hallucinations and extreme disorientation.

This was the life Davis and McMillan endured for the next three years.
Ultimately, they were moved to Hanoi and released in 1973 in Operation
Homecoming. Calloway's body has never been returned to his family for burial.
The Vietnamese deny any knowledge of him.

Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports relating to Americans missing in
Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S. Many officials, having reviewed
this largely classified information have reluctantly concluded that hundreds of
them are still alive in captivity today.

The U.S. continues to raise the question of the fate of Porter E. Calloway with
the communist government of Vietnam. The Vietnamese continue to deny any
knowledge of him.