MIA Mystery

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by Ken Hornbeck

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I can't remember if it was before or after the June 8 grenade incident. It seems to me that we were ordered to move back and call in some air strikes. (CAS, Close Air Support). I think it was from A1 Sky Raiders (propeller airplanes) or some people called them Spades. They bombed the hell out the hill and I think some napalm was dropped.

One of the platoons was getting ready to go back into the area to check things out. I noticed one of the guys, a fellow Cherry and friend of mine Garland was in the point-man position (after only a week in the field.) I walked over to Garland and I could see he had the look of concern and nervousness. I told him to take it slow and to watch his ass.

Then this black guy, who I guess overheard our conversation said, "Hey, I'll walk point, I want to kill some gooks." I just looked at Garland and he said, "Fine, okay by me." So they switched places and Garland became his slack man. Not too much later, around the same area of the grenade incident (there was a wall and a big tree) all hell broke loose with machine gun fire. I hit the ground on the trail. Then I saw a guy crawling back down the hill with blood around his eyes. His hands were out in front of him as he crawled, trying to feel his way back. I wanted to go to him but didn't know what to do. Ironically, I looked over to my left and lying close to the wall was the same SSG with reddish hair who saved my life. We had eye contact and he nodded, as if to say "okay go". It turned out the guy with the messed up eyes was Garland. We got Garland back to a secure spot and asked him, "What happened to the point man?" He said that he got hit in the shoulder and crawled the wrong way.

It turned out that Garland's wounds were not too serious, the machine gun bullets shot the bark off the trees into his eyes. I saw him two months later and he told me thanks and shook my hand. I didn't recognize him at first because he was wearing those old black-rimed Army issued glasses.

I saw Garland again while in holding for DEROS, waiting for our "Freedom Bird" back to the "World". Garland was lying in bed looking really sick. I carried him to the EVAC and they took one look at him, put him in a wheelchair and took him through the swinging doors. A few minutes later the nurse came out and said, "Soldier, your friend has malaria and he will be going to Japan." I never saw him again.

I had heard that the MIA just came walking back into camp around October. As you can imagine when he came back he was in pretty bad shape, spaced out and had lost a lot of weight. I read in B Troop 2/17 CAV After Action Reports of Lamar Plains that the higher ups wanted to keep the incident quiet. Some reported that the guy came back to some camp around Phu-Bai. Well that's one hell of a walk from Tam Ky. So much for After Action Reports. Whatever.

Ken Hornbeck
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