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Name: James William
Holt Rank/Branch: E7/US Army Special Forces Unit: Company C, Detachment A-101, 5th Special Forces Group Date of Birth: 19 September 1941 (Hope AR) Home City of Record: Hot Springs AR Loss Date: 07 February 1968 Country of Loss: South Vietnam Loss Coordinates: 163602N 1064058E (XD795360) Status (In 1973): Missing In Action Category: 1 Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground |
Personnel In Incident: Dennis L. Thompson;
William G. McMurry; Harvey G. Brande; (all released 1973).
Kenneth Hanna; Daniel R. Phillips; James W. Holt; James Moreland;
Charles Lindewald; (all missing); Eugene Ashley Jr. (killed)
REMARKS: OVERRUN AT SF
CAMP
SYNOPSIS: The Lang Vei
Special Forces camp in the northwestern corner of South Vietnam
along Route 9, a mile and a half from the Laotian border.had been
established in late December 1966 as a result of the Special
Forces Detachment A101 having been moved out of its former Khe
Sanh location. It seemed ill fated from the beginning.
In March 1967, one of the worst tragedies to befall the Special
Forces CIDG program during the war occurred. U.S. Air Force
released napalm ordnance on the nearby village which spewed
exploding fire over the camp, landing zone, minefield and
village. 135 CIDG and native civilians were killed, and 213 were
horribly wounded, burned or disfigured.
Only two months later, on May 4, a Viet Cong night attack on the
camp wiped out the Special Forces command group, all in one
bunker, and killed the detachment commander and his executive
officer, as well as seriously wounding the team sergeant. This
attack was a prelude to the larger siege of Khe Sanh, and was a
grim reminder of the dangerous neighborhood Special Forces had
moved into.
By January 1968, several North Vietnamese Army divisions had
encircled the Marine combat base at Khe Sanh, placing the more
westerly Lang Vei Special Forces frontier surveillance camp in
imminent danger. The camp was occupied by Detachment A101
commanded by Capt. Frank C. Willoughby. Willoughby was rebuilding
and reinforcing the camp at the time, while soldiers and
dependants from the Kha tribal 33rd Laotian Volunteer Battalion
streamed into the camp after being overrun by NVA tanks across
the border.
On the evening of January 24, the camp was pounded by mortars in
conjunction with a heavy shelling of the Marine Khe Sanh base,
which prevented any effective artillery support for Lang Vei.
1Lt. Paul R. Longgrear had only recently arrived with his Hre
tribal 12th Mobile Strike Force Company to help shore up
defensive firepower.
The influx of the Laotians caused some problems. For example, the
Lao battalion commander refused to take orders from the American
captain, forcing the Company C commander, LtCol. Daniel F.
Schungel, to come to Lang Vei on his firstSpecial Forces
assignment on February 6 to provide an officer of equal rank.
Camp strength on February 6 totalled 24 Special Forces, 14 LLDB,
161 mobile strike force, 282 CIDG (Bru and Vietnamese), 6
interpreters and 520 Laotian soldiers, plus a number of
civilians.
Shortly after midnight on February 7, 1968, a combined NVA
infantry-tank assault drove into Lang Vei. Two PT-76 tanks
threatened the outer perimeter of the camp as infantry rushed
behind them. SFC James W. Holt destroyed both tanks with shots
from his 106mm recoilless rifle. More tanks came around the
burning hulks of the first two tanks and began to roll over the
104th CIDG Company's defensive positions. SSgt. Peter Tiroch, the
assistant intelligence sergeant, ran over to Holt's position and
helped load the weapon. Holt quickly lined up a third tank in his
sights and destroyed it with a direct hit. After a second shot at
the tank, Holt and Tiroch left the weapons pit just before it was
demolished by return cannon fire. Tiroch watched Holt run over to
the ammunition bunker to look for some hand-held Light Anti-tank
Weapons (LAWs). It was the last time Holt was ever seen.
LtCol. Schungel, 1Lt. Longgrear, SSgt. Arthur Brooks, Sgt.
Nikolas Fragos, SP4 William G. McMurry, Jr., and LLDB Lt. Quy
desperately tried to stop the tanks with LAWs and grenades. They
even climbed on the plated engine decks, trying to pry open
hatches to blast out the crews. NVA infantrymen followed the
vehicles closely, dusting their sides with automatic rifle fire.
One tank was stopped by five direct hits, and the crew killed as
they tried to abandon the vehicle. 1Lt. Miles R. Wilkins, the
detachment executive officer, left the mortar pit with several
LAWs and fought a running engagement with one tank beside the
team house without much success.
Along the outer perimeters, the mobile strike force outpost was
receiving fire. Both Kenneth Hanna, a heavy weapons specialist,
and Charles W. Lindewald, 12th Mobile Strike Force platoon
leader, were wounded. Hanna, wounded in the scalp, left shoulder
and arm tried to administer first aid to Lindewald. The two were
last seen just before their position was overrun. Harvey Brande
spoke with them by radio and Hanna indicated that Lindewald was
then dead, and that he himself was badly wounded. Daniel R.
Phillips, a demolitions specialist, was wounded in the face and
was last seen trying to evade North Vietnamese armor by going
through the northern perimeter wire.
NVA sappers armed with satchel charges, tear gas grenades and
flamethrowers fought through the 101st, 102nd and 103rd CIDG
perimeter trenches and captured both ends of the compound by 2:30
a.m. Spearheaded by tanks, they stormed the inner compound.
LtCol. Schungel and his tank-killer personnel moved back to the
command bunker for more LAWs. They were pinned behind a row of
dirt and rock filled drums by a tank that had just destroyed one
of the mortar pits. A LAW was fired against the tank with no
effect. The cannon swung around and blasted the barrels in front
of the bunker entrance. The explosion temporarily blinded McMurry
and mangled his hands, pitched a heavy drum on top of Lt. Wilkins
and knocked Schungel flat. Lt. Quy managed to escape to another
section of the camp, but the approach of yet another tank
prevented Schungel and Wilkins from following. At some point
during this period, McMurry, a radioman, disappeared.
The tank, which was shooting at the camp observation post, was
destroyed with a LAW. Schungel helped Wilkins over to the team
house, where he left both doors ajar and watched for approaching
NVA soldiers. Wilkins was incapacitated and weaponless, and
Schungel had only two grenades and two magazines of ammunition
left. He used one magazine to kill a closely huddled five-man
sapper squad coming toward the building. He fed his last magazine
into his rifle as the team house was rocked with explosions and
bullets. The two limped over to the dispensary, which was
occupied by NVA soldiers, and hid underneath it, behind a wall of
sandbags.
At some point, Brande, Thompson and at least one Vietnamese
interpreter were captured by the North Vietnamese. Thompson was
uninjured, but Brande had taken shrapnel in his leg. Brande and
Thompson were held separately for a week, then rejoined in Laos.
Joined with them was McMurry, who had also been captured from the
camp. The three were moved up the Ho Chi Minh trail to North
Vietnam and held until 1973. The U.S. did not immediately realize
they had been captured, and carried them in Missing in Action
status thoughout the rest of the war, although Brande's photo was
positively identified by a defector in April 1969 as being a
Prisoner of War. A Vietnamese interpreter captured from the camp
told Brande later that he had seen both Lindewald and Hanna, and
that they both were dead.
Several personnel, including Capt. Willoughby, SP4 James L.
Moreland, the medic for the mobile strike force, and Lt. Quan,
the LLDB camp commander, were trapped in the underground level of
the command bunker. Lt. Longgrear had also retreated to the
command bunker. Satchel charges, thermite grenades and gas
grenades were shoved down the bunker air vents, and breathing was
very difficult. Some soldiers had gas masks, but others had only
handkerchiefs or gauze from their first aid packets.
The NVA announced they were going to blow up the bunker, and the
LLDB personnel walked up the stairs to surrender, and were
summarily executed. At dawn, two large charges were put down the
vent shaft and detonated, partially demolishing the north wall
and creating a large hole through which grenades were pitched.
The bunker defenders used upturned furniture and debris to shield
themselves. Willoughby was badly wounded by grenade fragments and
passed out at 8:30 a.m. Moreland had been wounded and became
delirious after receiving a head injury in the final bunker
explosion. Incredibly, the battle was still going on in other
parts of the camp.
Aircraft had been strafing the ravines and roads since 1:00 a.m.
Throughout the battle, the Laotians refused to participate,
saying they would attack at first light. Sfc. Eugene Ashley, Jr.,
the intelligence sergeant, led two assistant medical specialists,
Sgt. Richard H. Allen and SP4 Joel Johnson as they mustered 60 of
the Laotian soldiers and counterattacked into Lang Vei. The
Laotians bolted when a NVA machine gun crew opened fire on them,
forcing the three Americans to withdraw.
Team Sfc. William T. Craig and SSgt. Tiroch had chased tanks
throughout the night with everything from M-79 grenade launchers
to a .50 caliber machine gun. After it had become apparent that
the camp had been overrun, they escaped outside the wire and took
temporary refuge in a creek bed. After daylight, they saw
Ashley's counterattack force and joined him. The Special Forces
sergeants persuaded more defenders fleeing down Route 9 to assist
them and tried second, third and fourth assaults. Between each
assault, Ashley directed airstrikes on the NVA defensive line,
while the other Special Forces soldiers gathered tribal warriors
for yet another attempt. On the fifth counterattack, Ashley was
mortally wounded only thirty yards from the command bunker.
Capt. Willoughby had regained consciousness in the bunker about
10:00 a.m. and established radio contact with the
counterattacking Americans. The continual American airstrikes had
forced the North Vietnamese to begin withdrawing from the camp.
Col. Schungel and Lt. Wilkins emerged from under the dispensary
after it was vacated by the North Vietnamese and hobbled out of
the camp.
The personnel in the bunker also left in response to orders to
immediately evacuate the camp. They carried Sgt. John D. Early,
who had been badly wounded by shrapnel while manning the tower,
but were forced to leave SP4 Moreland inside the bunker. 1Lt.
Thomas D. Todd, an engineer officer in charge of upgrading Lang
Vei's airstrip, held out in the medical bunker throughout the
battle. That afternoon, he was the last American to pass through
the ruined command bunker. He saw Moreland, who appeared to be
dead, covered with debris.
Maj. George Quamo gathered a few dozen Special Forces commando
volunteers from the MACV-SOG base at Khe Sanh (FOB #3) and led a
heroic reinforcing mission into Lang Vei. His arrival enabled the
Lang Vei defenders to evacuate the area, many by Marine
helicopters in the late afternoon.
Sgt. Richard H. Allen - Survivor
Sfc Eugene Ashley, Jr. - Awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor
for Lang Vei
Harvey Gordon Brande - Captured - released POW in 1973
SSgt. Arthur Brooks - Survivor
Sfc. William T. Craig - Survivor
Sgt. John D. Early - Survivor
Sgt. Nikolas Fragos - Survivor
Kenneth Hanna - Missing In Action
James William Holt - Missing In Action
SP4 Joel Johnson - Survivor
Charles Wesley Lindewald, Jr. - Missing In Action
1Lt. Paul R. Longgrear - Survivor
SP4 William G. McMurry - Captured - released POW in 1973
James Leslie Moreland - Missing In Action
Daniel Raymond Phillips - Missing In Action
Maj. George Quamo - Killed in Action April 14, 1968
Lt. Quy - Survivor
LtCol. Daniel F. Schungel - appointed deputy commander of the 5th
Special Forces
Dennis L. Thompson - Captured - released POW in 1973
SSgt. Peter Tiroch - Survivor
1Lt. Thomas D. Todd - Survivor
1Lt. Miles R. Wilkins - Survivor
Capt. Frank C. Willoughby - Survivor
As long as
even one American remains alive, held against his will, we must
do everything possible to bring him home alive.
POW/MIA Data & Bios supplied by the P.O.W. NETWORK Skidmore, MO. USA