Shareware Supreme Volume 6 #1/swsii.zip/swsii/009/B030.ZIP/B030

Text File | 1989-11-11 | 6KB | 95 lines

CASE SYNOPSIS: BODDEN, TIMOTHY ROY

Name: Timothy Roy Bodden
Rank/Branch: E5/US Marine Corps
Unit: HMM 165, Marine Air Group 36
Date of Birth: 06 November 1942
Home City of Record: Downer's Grove IL
Loss Date: 03 June 1967
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 161914N 1064049E (XD795050)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: CH46A
Other Personnel In Incident: Frank E. Cius (returned POW 1973); Ronald J.
Dexter; John G. Gardner; Stephen Hanson; Billy Laney; (all missing); Mr. Ky
(Nung Cdr. - wounded and rescued); Charles F. Wilklow (rescued)

REMARKS: LAST SEEN IN CRASHED AIRCRAFT

SYNOPSIS: On June 3, 1967, Capt. Steven P. Hanson, pilot; 1Lt. John G. Gardner,
co-pilot; Sgt. Timothy R. Bodden, crew chief/door gunner; LCpl. Frank E. Cius,
doorgunner; SFC Billy R. Laney, SFC Ronald J. Dexter, SFC Charles F. Wilklow
and an unknown number of ARVN personnel, all passengers, were aboard a CH46A
helicopter (serial #150955) on an extraction mission in Laos.

The USMC aircraft picked up a U.S. Army Special Forces team attached to
MACV-SOG, Command and Control, and the ARVN troops they were working with.
Military Assistance Command Vietnam Studies and Observation Group (MACV-SOG)
was a joint service high command unconventional warfare task force engaged in
highly classified operations throughout Southeast Asia. The 5th Special Forces
channeled personnel into MACV-SOG (not a Special Forces group) through Special
Operations Augmentation (SOA) which provided their "cover" while under secret
orders to MACV-SOG. These teams performed deep penetration missions of
strategic reconnaissance and interdiction which were called, depending on the
time frame, "Shining Brass" or "Prairie Fire" missions.

The aircraft received extensive automatic small arms fire upon takeoff from the
Landing Zone, took numerous hits and crashed 350 meters from the LZ, located
about 15 miles inside Laos west of the A Shau Valley. The helicopter did not
burn on impact, and continued to receive fire. Three ARVN troops were able to
return to the LZ where the troops remaining at the LZ were extracted the
following day.

The troops waiting at the LZ could not search because of the hostile threat in
the area. Air searches located the survivors of the crash, but they could not
be evacuated. The only America found to be in a position to be safely evacuated
was SFC Wilklow. He gave the following account of what happened to the crew and
passengers aboard the CH46:

SFC Dexter appeared uninjured and left the wreckage with a large number of ARVN
troops. Capt. Hanson was wounded and outside the helicopter, but stated that he
had to return to get his carbine. The Marine Corps believes he died of the
wounds he received when the aircraft was overrun, although Hanson's wife later
identified her husband in a widely distributed Vietnamese propaganda photograph
of a pilot being captured. When last seen, all the other Americans were still
in the wreckage, and enemy troops (the U.S. Army says they were Viet Cong; the
U.S. Marines say they were North Vietnamese Army - possibly a joint force of
both) were tossing grenades toward the aircraft with no attempt to capture the
personnel inside. Wilklow left the crash site, and noted that gunfire suddenly
stopped. He continued to evade the enemy and was picked up 3 days later.

When Mr. Ky, the Nung Commander was being evacuated by the last helicopter out,
he noted several men (undoubtedly Dexter and the ARVN) in a large bomb crater
firing red star clusters from a flare gun. Frank Cius was taken prisoner and
released from Hanoi in 1973. He was one of the dozen or so captured by the
Vietnamese and taken immediately to Hanoi claimed to be the "Laos" prisoners.
In reality, none of the dozen had been held in Laos. Ronald Dexter, according
to Frank Cius, was captured, and died in captivity on July 29, 1967. John
Gardner, according to the USMC, died on the ground after the crash of the
aircraft due to intense enemy fire. Billy Laney was last seen lying wounded on
the floor of the aircraft between a crewmember with a broken back and the door
gunner with a head wound.

NOTE: the USMC states that Bodden, crewchief/door gunner was shot in the back
and never left the aircraft, but reports received by the National League of
Families indicate that he was definitely alive after the aircraft crashed. The
U.S. did not know Cius was captured until he was released, evidently believing
he never exited the aircraft, and Wilklow had indicated that the Vietnamese
were not trying to capture the occupants of the aircraft. Therefore, as door
gunner, he must have been the "door gunner with the head wound", and Bodden the
"crewmember with a broken back".)

Since 1975, the U.S. Government has received thousands of reports relating to
Americans still alive in Southeast Asia. Many of them cannot be dismissed as
untrue. Officially, the U.S. says it is operating under the assumption that men
are being held, and that the matter is of "highest national priority". Yet, we
seem unable to resolve the mystery. Nor have they ever negotiated for the "tens
of tens" of American prisoners the Lao stated they held.

There can be no question that the communists know the fate of those who were
last seen on the ill-fated CH 46A that day. The men aboard this craft were
inserted into Laos for exceedingly dangerous and important missions. They
deserve no less than America's very best efforts to determine their fates. If
any of them are alive, they must be brought home.