| The Incident
On 23 April 1971, then PFC
James A. Champion and PFC Isaako F. Malo were riflemen assigned
to a six-man radio relay team on a Long Range Reconnaissance
Patrol (LRRP) being inserted into the infamous A Shau Valley to
report on NVA activity. After receiving intense enemy ground fire
at their primary landing zone (LZ) on the west side of the
valley, the team was inserted into their alternate LZ near the
village of A Luoi on the east side of it.
The LZ was located in the west
side of the mountain range that overlooked the east side of the
valley. It was also situated between two peaks in what is
commonly referred to as a "saddle" approximately 1 mile southeast
of the NVA's new road and 2 miles northwest of a river that
flowed along the east side of the jungle covered A Shau Valley.
This new road ran east-west where it entered South Vietnam north
of the A Shau Valley, then ran from the northwest to the
southeast along the east side of the valley where it ran next a
river that flowed through it. Roughly two-thirds of the way
through the valley, the road turned sharply to the northeast
where it headed directly toward Hue. The LZ was also located
approximately 6 miles northwest of the South Vietnamese/Lao
border, 22 miles southwest of Hue, 44 miles southeast of Khe Sanh
and 58 miles west-northwest of DaNang, Thua Thien Province, South
Vietnam.
The NVA's new road was a major
addition to the notorious Ho Chi Minh Trail. When North Vietnam
began to increase its military strength in South Vietnam, NVA and
Viet Cong troops again intruded on neutral Laos for sanctuary, as
the Viet Minh had done during the war with the French some years
before. This border road was used by the Communists to transport
weapons, supplies and troops from North Vietnam into South
Vietnam, and was frequently no more than a path cut through the
jungle covered mountains. US forces used all assets available to
them to stop this flow of men and supplies from moving south into
the war zone.
After disembarking from the
helicopters at 1500 hours, the radio relay team leader, Marvin
Duren, took the point position. Shortly after the team began to
move away from the LZ, he was severely wounded by enemy automatic
weapons fire, grenade and rifle fire. The team's alternate team
leader, John Sly, took command of the patrol. He was hit by enemy
fire and killed in a heroic attempt made by the team medic and
himself to drag Marvin Duren out of the line of fire.
CWO Fred Behrens, an
experienced Medevac helicopter pilot, volunteered to fly the
emergency extraction mission to rescue the wounded soldiers, as
well as the rest of the team. CWO Behrens volunteered for this
mission because he felt his chance of success to extract the team
from this hot LZ were better than other less experienced pilots.
During his second attempt to extract John Sly his helicopter was
shot down. The 4-man aircrew found themselves on the ground with
the LRRP team fighting for their lives. Shortly thereafter in the
continuing attempts to rescue the embattled Americans, a second
helicopter was shot down by the vicious enemy ground fire. The
Aero Rifle Platoon, which was being brought in as reinforcements,
was forced to withdraw under intense ground fire and regroup.
Over the next three days the intense battle around the downed
aircraft continued.
At the same time the battle was
raging on the ground, a search and rescue (SAR) operation was in
full swing to recover both downed aircrews and the radio relay
LRRP team. The SAR effort employed both a wide range of ground
and air assets.
On 24 April, the Americans on
the ground were widely dispersed around their defensive position
on the LZ and were engaged in vicious combat with NVA forces. US
airstrikes were called in nearly upon themselves in order to
force enemy troops away from the American's perimeter. During one
of these airstrikes, PFC Malo was wounded by shrapnel from a
close-in air strike made by a US Cobra gunship. At approximately
1600 hours on 24 April, Issako Malo disappeared. When the others
realized he was gone, they searched the immediate area as best
they could while notifying SAR personnel of the
situation.
At approximately 1500 hours on
25 April, PFC James Champion was armed with an M-16 rifle and in
good shape when he left the team's defensive perimeter next to
one of the downed helicopters to look for water. After being
rescued, Fred Behrens reported he heard shots coming from the
direction PFC Champion headed, but could not provide any
additional information as to PFC Champion's fate.
A reaction force from Company
L, 75 Infantry was finally inserted into the area and
successfully drove the NVA elements away from the embattled
American position. The survivors and the dead were evacuated. No
one ever told the survivors the size of the enemy force they came
up against; however, it was a large enough force to warrant an
Arclight strike by B-52 bombers.
From the time both Rangers
failed to return to the landing zone through 30 April, an intense
and protracted series of ground and aerial searches were made for
them. On 25-28 April, a psychological warfare operations aircraft
was used to make broadcasts calling for the two soldiers to
return to the landing zone for pickup. Unfortunately, neither one
came to the LZ. At the time the formal search was terminated,
James Champion and Issako Malo were listed Missing in
Action.
Later information was received
by US intelligence confirming that Issako Malo had been captured
and his status was changed from Missing in Action to Prisoner of
War. After his release from captivity on 27 March 1973 during
Operation Homecoming, PFC Malo stated to his debriefers that he
became separated from the other Americans and managed to evade
capture until the morning of 25 April. After capture, the NVA
moved him north and he was eventually imprisoned in North
Vietnam. Further, he reported that at no time during his
imprisonment did he see or have any contact with PFC
Champion.
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