| The Incident
On 28 March 1968, PFC Grosse
was a rifleman assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry,
1st Cavalry Division on a search and destroy mission in Thua
Thien Province, Republic of Vietnam. While his platoon was moving
in file down a trail, with Grosse as the second man, the platoon
was ambushed by an enemy force.
The point man, PFC Johnson, who
was 8-9 meters ahead of Grosse, observed him fall, wounded, with
blood on his head and neck. Due to the situation, Johnson did not
have time to double back to see if PFC Grosse were alive. Johnson
said, however, that Grosse lay completely still and appeared to
be dead.
The intense enemy fire forced
the patrol to withdraw from the area without PFC Grosse. Efforts
to reach him later that day were unsuccessful, due to hostile
fire in the area. A search of the area the next day failed to
locate Grosse.
It was not uncommon for the
Viet Cong to bury American casualties, and in doing so bury them
in places so hidden that they could not be found. Since Grosse
was wounded, it is possible that this occurred. However, since
his death is not certain, it is also quite reasonable to expect
that he could have been captured as his platoon
withdrew.
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