Sgt Pede was again on the road with Phillips and the Company armorer Jim Rozo. They left the motor pool in a deuce and a half at the same time I pulled my truck out to head to the ROC compound on the other side of the base.
Just as I thought I was done repairing the ROK commo lines before 2 pm. By 3 I was sucking down a cold PBR a real taste of home since my civilian job prior to entering the Army was working at Pabst in the Heights. Somewhere around the same time I got to the EM Club the buzz in the club was that Sgt Pede's detail had not made it to Phouc Vinh. Yes, they had left Lai Khe around 11am. Around 4:30 word came in that the truck had been found by a patrol from the 1st Cav., but there was no sign of the occupants.
Sgt. "Pineapple" (no one could pronounce his name) from the motor pool dispatched the wrecker with PFC Long to retrieve the vehicle. When Long got back to base everyone wanted to look at the truck. The front windshield was shattered. The left front tire was flat. We were told that Demolition experts were called to detonate an unexploded RPG round in the tire.
Inside the cab were a lot of shell casings for the m-16 rounds. The interior of the cab showed no signs of blood stains.
Sgt Joe Pederson, Specialist Jim Rozo and PFC Robert Phillips were missing. They remain unaccounted for today 3 of about 70 cases where the Vietnamese should know the status of the MIA.
Fast forward to June 7 this year. I received an email from a cousin of Sgt Pede. We have been in contact for the last few years. Sgt Pede's cousin, Al, had just been to a briefing for family members of those who are still unaccounted for. Al gave me the details of his briefing. According to DoD, The ambush was done by four Viet Cong. Sgt Pede was injured in the leg during the ambush. One of the VC was killed in the ambush. My friends were led west towards Cambodia.
On the fourth day Sgt Pede died probably due to a loss of blood from his injury. He was buried and the others were led further west. At some point both Rozo and Phillips were killed trying to escape.
This was the news that I got from Al. All of it according to DoD. News I didn't want to know yet news I hoped for decades was what happened. I would hate to think that these three men were still alive and in captivity after 39 years.
Yet even though I wanted it to be true and had hoped that it was true for decades, hearing it hurt. I cried. I cried all night and most of the next day. I slept for a total of 5 hours over the next three nights. In my head I kept replaying June 22 and June 23.
- Was there something I did that caused us not to be ambushed on the 22nd? No, nothing special happened on the 22nd.
- Would the outcome have been different had I been there on the 23rd? I believe it would have been different. With my 20 grenades I am certain we could have repelled an attack by four VC.
- Why didn't I go on the 23rd? Wasn't my time to go.
- Survivors guilt..... why them and not me? I know why not me but it doesn't erase the pain or the guilt.
So that is the story. That is the major wound I brought back from Nam. No one can see it. no doctor can heal it. Time heals all wounds????? Time has done nothing but make the hurt harder to bear.
Think my friends about the men and women coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. What kinds of hidden wounds are they carrying. What do we really know about what they have been through? I can tell you my wife knows nothing of what her son went through in Afghanistan. He won't tell her of the firefights he was in guarding Kabul Airport.
These young men and women deserve the best of medical and mental health care. Instead we give the a VA system full of problems and underfunded 9 of the past 11 years. It is time to support our troops with a fully funded VA health care system. Write your Representative in Congress and demand that Congress pass a full funding bill for the VA!
Excellent posts. Sad isn't it? I mean my biggest haertbreak coming home was I got spit on in SF because I was in uniform. You smoked me my friend. Keep the faith.
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