mia mysteries

grunt66 · #1 08-28-2002, 04:37 PM

Not long ago I read on Leatherneck.com about four Marines disappearing one night from am listening post and never found nor did they show up at the prisoner exchange. How often did that happen folks ? Anyone else have knowledge about snatch ops by the opposition ?

xgrunt · #2 08-28-2002, 05:59 PM

Keep in mind I'm only using facts that have come out in official documents. The highest rate of missing Airmen are the backseaters, the Electronics officer, many who were seen bailing out were never heard from again . these were some of our brightest officers concerning radar etc. Many had been assigned to the nuke Program where they knew specific targets. It's been said that theses POW's were sent to an Eastrern Eourpean[sp][Warsaw Pact} country in exchange for arms to N Viet Nam. I do know that if you were a grunt ,the North had no use for you ,so, there were not very many grunt POW's led off battle sites.

DMZ-LT · #3 08-28-2002, 06:27 PM

Never left anyone, never took a prisoner. Welcome home. ( See ya soon Frank - with some fresh Grouper !)

grunt66 · #4 08-28-2002, 07:14 PM

I was aware that air crews often did not come back and I read somewhere Special Forces were occassionally taken prisoner. I may be wrong but I don't think many LLRPs or Marine Recon were taken prisoner .
That kind of a war .

Andy · #5 08-28-2002, 08:10 PM

I've said this before on other sites but I'll do her again. I know of no 25th division Infantry who were ever taken prisoner during the entire war. Charlie flew the Black Flag.

On a very sad note, one night we sent out our usual 3 man LP. They stopped answering sit-reps at 0330. People woke me up a little after that and all morning long we were mad as hell that they did not answer their radio. At dawn we walked out of find 3 men with their throats slit, equipment was gone.

Line infantry taken prisoner in III Corps, maybe but I know of no verified accounts. Does anyone know of grunts in III Corps taken prisoner???

Stay healthy,
Andy
PS: We did capture four NVA one day in a fight near Trang Bang.

PHO127 · #6 08-29-2002, 07:07 AM

in Cambodia while I was with SOG, They never checked in and were never heard from. They did not show on any POW list. I do not know of any grunt GIs taken POW. SOG had a special opns group for downed crews and suspected POWs, SOG 81 (Brightlight). I am sure that they (NVA) ran snatch operations just as we did, but if any of their missions were successful the persons most probably would not have survived to be listed as POWs. Additionally, any snatch opns the NVA would have run would be few and far between because they had a vast intel network already established. We ran snatch opns because we did not have the intel.

PS. not as in the GB movie, we did not take generals ETC. Truck drivers, they knew delivery routes and cargos. and how many and much.

ArtySgt · #7 08-29-2002, 03:10 PM

Andy, we lost a two man LP/OP exactly the same way you discribed in lll Corps. Can't recall any of our people taken as POW, all wounded were shot. Even in one case where capture was inevitable, survivor's were shot out of hand.