Sharkman, I think they can now rest in peace, knowing their love ones have closure. I pray their loves ones can find peace and solice in knowing that their warriors are home.

Soldiers Missing in Action from Vietnam War are Identified
 

Adding the link here, Maj. Frederick J. Ransbottom and Staff Sgt. William E. Skivington Jr are listed within post 5 of this thread.

Never Forgotten
Welcome home

DefenseLink

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of two U.S. servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

They are Maj. Frederick J. Ransbottom, of Oklahoma City, Okla.; and Staff Sgt. William E. Skivington Jr.; of Las Vegas, Nev.; both U.S. Army. Ransbottom will be buried in Edmond, Okla. on Jan. 13, and Skivington will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C., on Jan. 23.

Representatives from the Army met with the next-of-kin of these men to explain the recovery and identification process, and to coordinate interment with military honors on behalf of the Secretary of the Army.

On May 12, 1968, North Vietnamese forces overran the Kham Duc Special Forces camp and its surrounding observation posts in Quang Nam-Da Nang Province (formerly Quang Tin Province), South Vietnam. Ransbottom and Skivington were two of the 17 U.S. servicemen unaccounted-for after the survivors evacuated the camp. Search and recovery efforts at the site in 1970 succeeded in recovering remains of five of the 17 men. A sixth man was returned alive during Operation Homecoming in 1973 after having been captured and held prisoner of war by the North Vietnamese.

Between 1993 and 2006, joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), conducted eight investigations and four excavations in the vicinity of the camp site. The team interviewed former North Vietnamese officers and soldiers who participated in the battle. Some recalled seeing the bodies of U.S. servicemen near one of the observation posts, and U.S. eyewitness accounts placed Ransbottom and Skivington near the post.

During an excavation conducted in 1998, two U.S. servicemen who survived the battle accompanied JPAC to help locate the observation posts, but found no evidence of human remains. Later excavations conducted in the area yielded human remains, identification media and personal effects for Ransbottom, Skivington and several other soldiers.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC also used dental comparisons in the identification of the remains.

Welcome Home and Rest In Peace, Warriors.

Welcome home men. Rest in peace.

Rest in Peace.

I was the platoon Leader for Echo Recon 2/1 for most of 1971. My predecessor was killed up on the DMZ one night. His predecessor was killed near Baldy and his predecessor was killed in a night ambush site when his ambush got ambushed.

Lt Ransbottom was the one before that (to my knowledge). Only one of the five of us made it home alive. Being Recon Plt Ldr was not a easy job. My freind who left 10th SFG with me and went to RVN became the Recon Plt Ldr for my sister unit, 1/46, and he went home alive but shot up. We might have been fighting a losing war but we gave it a good try.


This is what I know from my home unit forum -196th Inf Brigade.

KHAM DUC: Mrs Ransbottom has picked 13 Jan 2007 1:00 pm at the Henderson Hills Church ,in Edmund OK.for her son's burial. Lt. Ransbottom's remains were recently returned from OP-2 at Kham Duc where they have been since 12 may 1968 , Mother's Day. He was the Plt Ldr of the Reconn Plt manning OP's at Kham Duc and they were overrun. He was in "E" Co. 2/1st Inf. Skip Skivington's, from same OP-2 bunker, remains were also returned and an Arlington burial is planned ,,but no firm date yet. "God Bless the Infantry",,, and their families
Bill Schneider
Bull Town, Mo USA - Wednesday, December 06, 2006 at 14:49:43 (EST)

SSGT Skivington's service at Arlington was today. When they placed the casket at the gravesite the sun came out for the first time in several days.

Peace to you my brothers - Rest Well, you are home again.

RIP, brother.

Is that a Dress Blue Pile Cap, or do my eyes deceive me?

Never seen one of them before.

Casket, can you verify?

TR

Rest in peace

Your eyes didn't lie.

Reaper

They all had them on and they looked like "issue".

There were about 6-8 people who appeared to be from SFA XI but I only pay my dues and never go to any of the meetings so I do not know who they were except like me they were either grey headed or bald.


Anyone who is from the DC metro area may can see it on News Channel 8.

Rest in peace.

Welcome home. It's good to have you back.

LL

Ngok Tavak POW/MIA
 

Thought I might add a few tid-bits about Ngok Tavak.

1. Headquarters did not want us to leave the camp. Capt. White was
requesting help all morning. Their reply every time was that help was on
the way and to hold on.
2. The only help that made it into the camp, were three SF (one commo &
two medics) that came in on a huey at 05:30AM. About forty-five indig and
a SF Capt came in a later, when it was thought to be a little safer to
land. Two of the four CH-46s that were bringing them in, were shot down
as they were about to land. This filled the LZ and meant that we were not
going to get any help by choppers. We were still being told to hold.
3. At the same time, Kham Duc was being surrounded and losing OP's. They
were having their on problems. Still, we were being told to hold on.
4. I guess they wanted us to hold on, because the NVA were no longer trying
to hide and our air support was having a field day killing them. God Bless
our air support.
5. I can't speak for everyone else, but this is about this time that I started
making deals with GOD.
6. At 12:00PM Capt White informed our Deputy Commander, who was
overhead in a huey, that we would be leaving the camp at 01:00PM.
He told Capt White that he better be glad that he was an Australian.
7. The HEROES that day were the men of Dust-off 55 (Double Nickle). They
took out appox. sixty of the wounded that day. We were getting men
wounded all morning and they kept coming in, in-spite of the heavy fire.
God Bless the men of Double Nickle. Had they not picked-up our wounded,
we would have stayed at Ngok Tavak and made our Deputy Commander
happy. By the way, the pilot of Double Nickle was, now retired Major
General Patrick Henry Brady MOH. In my opinion he should have received it
for what he did for all of us.
8. All of our KIA's occurred before we left camp and not going back to look for
anyone left behind.
9. The question that gets asked all the time is "Why did y'all leave the KIA's?
Between the American KIA's and the indig KIA's, there were
more of them than there was of us to carry. Keep in mind, this was an E&E,
not a stroll in the park.
10. None of us had any idea how Perry became MIA. (and still don't)


This isn't the whole story, by no means. I'm sure everyone who was there
has his own. This is just some of mine.

Jack D.
05B4S
Det-B16
1st Mobile Strike Force, DaNang