Rank/Branch: E3/US Army

Unit: Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division

Date of Birth: 07 August 1949

Home City of Record: Albuquerque, NM

Date of Loss: 25 March 1969

Country of Loss: South Vietnam

Loss Coordinates: 144018N 1073621E (YB805235)

Status (in 1973): Missing In Action

Category: 2

Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground

Other Personnel In Incident: Prentice Hicks; Richard Roberts (both missing)

As the unit was moving toward high ground, they again came in contact with the enemy. At that time, PFC Roberts was the point man. During the contact, the unit began to move in a disorderly fashion back down the hill, and during that period, PFC Hicks, Herrera and Roberts were separated from the main element.

It is believed that PFC Herrera and Roberts had stayed behind with PFC Hicks. This was the last time they were seen. At that time, neither Herrera or Roberts were injured.

During a search of the area on April 5, a reconnaissance team found some letters belonging to PFC Hicks, along with the cover from a Bible belonging to PFC Herrera, but there was no sign of the three missing men. The three men had disappeared, and, given the enemy situation in the area, it is entirely possible that they were captured. They were declared Missing In Action. Later hearings were held to declare them dead, although no evidence was ever received that the three died.

Americans captured by the Viet Cong had a terrible and grueling ordeal ahead. The Viet Cong themselves were often deprived of adequate food, and the need to be constantly moving only made life more difficult to sustain. Americans were ill-equipped to cope with jungle diseases and drastic change in diet. Torture was commonplace and cruel. Many were mentally and physically depleted to the point of starvation and death. Towards the end of the war, prisoners captured in the south were routinely taken north for detention by the North Vietnamese, and although torture was a daily threat, few died of starvation during those late years.

Whether Herrera and the others were captured is not known. The chances of their having survived the second attack are good. Alive or dead, however, the Vietnamese certainly know their fate. Someone knows where they were taken that day.

Tragically, reports of Americans still held captive in Indochina continue to be received, creating a large body of evidence difficult to ignore. It seems clear that some of our military are still held prisoner in Southeast Asia. Herrera, Hicks and Roberts could be among them. Isn't it time we brought our men home? I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to keep pushing this issue inside the Beltway... The need to get specific answers is more important now than ever before. If still alive, some MIAs are now in their 70s...They don't have much time left. We have to demand the answers from the bureaucrats and keep standing on their necks (figuratively speaking) until they get the message that THEY work for US and that we are serious about getting these long overdue responses. Diplomatic considerations aside... We can no longer allow questionable protocols established by pseudo-aristocratic armchair strategists, to determine or influence the fate of the men who were in the trenches while the diplomats were sharing sherry and canapes and talking about "Their Plans" for the future of SE Asia. If you'd like to see what some others are doing in addition to writing their congressmen, senators and the Whitehouse, check out some of these sites which I have listed and linked below.

"All Biographical and loss information on POWs provided by Operation Just Cause have been supplied by Chuck and Mary Schantag of POWNET. Please check with POWNET regularly for updates."

DID YOU KNOW....??

We all know that 591 came home in Operation Homecoming. But did you know that in Sept. of 1972 the General of the Army , Gen. Quang, told the North Vietnamese Politburo that they (the Vietnamese) were holding 1,205 Americans as POWs and that only 368 had been acknowledged or were to be acknowledged to the American authorities? The document was uncovered just after Clinton's first inauguration and the first thing his administration did with the document was classify it. The document can be found at:

The Quang 1,205 Document

(The above is reprinted with permission of Captain Barbara A. Wilson, USAF (Retired )captbarb@aug.com )

Advocacy And Intelligence Index

For Prisoners Of War/Missing In Action, Inc. ( AIIPOWMIAI )

Bob Necci and Andi Wolos

THE POW/MIA E-MAIL NETWORK aiijul31.97d

No. 128-M

July 28, 1997

MEMORANDUM FOR CORRESPONDENTS

The remains of two American servicemen previously unaccounted-for from Southeast Asia have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial in the United States.

They are identified as Maj. James B. East, USAF, of Oklahoma City, Okla. and Lt. Col. Thomas R. Morgan, USAF, of Akron, Ohio.

On April 26, 1969, East was attacking an enemy mortar position in Laos when his A-1J Skyraider was struck by enemy ground fire. The aircraft crashed and exploded.

In 1994, a Lao witness identified a possible crash site associated with that of East. A joint U.S./Lao Recovery Team excavated the site later that year and found aircraft wreckage, pilot-related items, and human bone fragments.

On January 26, 1967, Morgan was conducting a strike mission over a target in South Vietnam. As the attack began, pilots in other aircraft on the mission observed smoke trailing from Morgan’s F100D Super Sabre. His plane burst into flames and broke in half prior to impact.

Investigations of Morgan’s crash site were conducted in 1967 and 1968 by American investigators, but no remains were located. A joint U.S./Vietnamese recovery team in 1994 excavated the crash site and found human remains. In 1996, a local Vietnamese turned over more bone fragments and personal effects of Morgan scavenged from the crash site. Morgan’s remains were subsequently identified.

Mitochondrial DNA testing was used to confirm the two identifications. The remains will be shipped from the U.S. Army’s Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii at a date to be determined by the families.

With the identification of these two servicemen, there remain 2,116 unaccounted-for Americans from the Vietnam War.

The U.S. government welcomes and appreciates the cooperation of the governments of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic which resulted in the accounting of these servicemen. We hope that such cooperation will bring increased results in the future. Achieving the fullest possible accounting for these Americans is of the highest national priority.

Come For Me

Twenty years in the jungle has taken it's toll on me.

I'm not the same man I used to be.

But one thing's consistent ... I long to be free.

Please, Mr. President, come for me.

The scars of my torture will never go away.

I'm fifty pounds lighter. My hair is gray.

But the shackles can't chain the freedom in me.

Please, lawmakers come for me.

If my family believed there's a chance I'd survived,

They'd fight to their deaths to prove I'm alive.

Please, lovin' family, come for me.

Some captors say you don't know I'm here,

That I'm doomed to this prison year after year.

God Bless America, the land of the free.

Please, friends and parishoners, come for me.

Other captors say you know that I'm here,

But refuse to accept the evidence, so clear.

Will some caring citizen hear my plea?

Please, fellow countrymen, come for me.

I'll have faith in my country 'till my dying day.

I'll never believe you could leave me this way.

My Country, 'tis of thee .....

Please, please, America, come for me!

~LeAnn Thieman, 1987~

Contributed By Willie Dougherty http://vvoa.com Vetrans Voice of Austin