GEORGE, JAMES EDWARD JR.
Name: James Edward George, Jr.
Other Personnel in Incident: Lenker, Michael,
returnee; Rose, Joseph,
Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK 02 March
1997 from one or more of the
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: The 101st Airborne Division had
a new battalion just outside of
Warrant Officer Joe Rose was flying the
UH-1 "Huey" and Warrant Officer
Purcell handed the radio he had come to
deliver to Capt Drake. Private
One of the radios was out and they could
not fly back up through the
Rose turned the helicopter toward the southeast
and headed toward the
Suddenly Warrant Officer Ziegler turned
toward Purcell and shouted,
The helicopter gave a sudden lurch and
then the inside flared brightly
The helicopter made a sweeping turn to
the right and toward the ground
The helicopter hit hard and the tips of
the rotor blades dug into the
George, Chenoweth, Lenker, and Purcell
loosened their seat belts and
Ziegler was hit in the leg. George ran
back to the ship to recover his
Soon after, the crew was surrounded by
twelve Viet Cong. Realizing they
As the VC forced them to move, the injured
George asked Ben Purcell to
In 1992, Ben and Anne Purcell wrote a love
story entitled "LOVE & DUTY" --
Until 1997 - this was the only information
available:
An American releasee reported during his
debriefing on March 30, 1973, that
Several returned POWs identified George
as having been a prisoner of war,
Although George was confirmed to be an
American POW, the Vietnamese deny any
Unfortunately, thousands of reports have
been received regarding the men
As long as one American remains prisoner
in Southeast Asia, the war cannot
Apr 21 1998
Former POW gives Fort Hood soldiers food
for thought
FORT HOOD, Texas (Army News Service, April
20, 1998) -- The retired colonel
"In a literal twinkling of an eye, my lifestyle
changed from a person of
In that twinkling in February 1968, a helicopter
in which he was a
He and three other soldiers were tied up
and forced to march barefoot
When they resumed marching, he heard a
shot. He suspected that the Viet
Twenty-nine years later, Purcell
After six days as a prisoner of war, Purcell
and his group were finally
"I was cold, I was hungry, I was hurting
from broken ribs from the crash
He became so weak that he was carried on
a litter to a camp where they
When he reached the next camp, he was put
in solitary confinement and
"We survived by faith, courage, and our
devotion to duty, and on very rare
He said his prayers led him to politely
argue with his captors to keep his
He also went on two hunger strikes to protest
his solitary confinement that
Purcell spent 58 months in solitary confinement,
excluding the few precious
"A man who cannot live with himself cannot
live with his fellow man,"
To keep busy he made three versions of
his wedding band, one from a plastic
"The physical body has needs -- food, shelter,
life -- but life is not
On Jan. 27, 1973, the prisoners were told
the war was over and were moved
He said his experience showed him that
in addition to faith and family,
In introducing Purcell, Col. Christopher
A. Rockwell, 13th Corps Support
Members of the audience indeed got food
for thought to go with their bacon
This site is owned by Amber
Star
Rank/Branch: E4/US Army
Unit: 129th Maintenance Company, 69th
Maintenance Battalion
Date of Birth: 19 July 1947
Home City of Record: Ft. Worth TX
Date of Loss: 08 February 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 164424N 1071941E (YD471521)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action (later
changed to Killed in Captivity)
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: UH1D
returnee; Chenoweth, Robert, returnee;
Ziegler, Roy "Dick", returnee;
Purcell, Benjamin, returnee
following: raw data from U.S. Government
agency sources, correspondence with
POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews,
"Love & Duty", by Benn and
Anne Purcell.
Quang Tri City. "Charlie" was everywhere
around the city. Radio contact was
yet to be established with logistics.
A single band radio needed to be
delivered there ASAP. Colonel Pen Purcell
was the executive commander of the
80th General Support Group and deputy
commander of the Dan Nang Sub-Area
Command. Purcell decided to hand carry
the radio on their way to Dong Ha to
check on other troops.
Dick Ziegler was his copilot. The crew
chief was SP/4 Robert Chenoweth,
and SP/4 Mike Lenker was the door gunner.
Pfc. James E. George, a
refrigeration mechanic from Purcell's
command, sat in the jump seat.
George, the refrigeration mechanic, hurried
over to repair the disabled
reefer truck, which was his mission on
this trip.
and Chenoweth had a panel raised and were
looking at something.
overcast skies without it. They had to
cancel the rest of the trip up to
Dong Ha.
coast. They were flying about three hundred
feet or so above the
ground - not high enough to be out of
range of small-arms fire.
"We're being fired on!" His next message
was, "We're on fire!"
with an orange light. Only seconds after
the first round hit, the fire
was already hot just forward of the transmission
housing in the center
of the passenger compartment of the helicopter.
Private George and
Col. Purcell were sitting on the outside
seats as far away from the heat
as it was possible to be.
trailing fire and smoke. Rose fought to
control the helicopter and to
land it as quickly as possible.
ground and broke as they struck a large
granite monument. The helicopter
was ripped to shreds by the ground impact
and the flailing rotor blades.
jumped out, but the pilot and copilot
couldn't get out through their
respective doors. They were trapped in
their seats by the "chicken
plates," as the aircrews humorously called
the armor shields installed
between them and their doors. The door
gunner ran to the front doors and
slid the panels back so Rose and Mr. Ziegler
could get out. By the
time he opened their doors, though, the
pilots had already butted their
way through the windshield.
M-14 rifle, which was lying on the floor
between the pilots' seats.
He drove right into the middle of the
flames and the fire engulfed him
instantly. Lenker and Purcell had to reach
in and drag him out. Flames
had licked at George's hands and face,
and his skin there was hanging in
halfdragged the badly burned young soldier
away from the burning
helicopter. Ziegler was limping badly,
his leg was bleeding, and George
was in great pain and groaning softly.
had no chance to fight with few weapons
and ammunition, the crew
surrendered.
pray. The VC soon put an end to the prayers
-- Purcell was forced to
move off and a shot was heard. James E.
George was believed executed
that day. His remains have never been
found.
the remarkable story of a courageous MIA
family and the victory they won
with their faith. This short biography
was written with information from
their book.
SP4 George was with him and others the
day after George`s capture. The group
was being marched, presumably north, although
the destination is not clear.
The releasee stated that George could
not keep up with the group and he was
pulled from the group. Later a shot was
heard from the direction George had
been taken. The releasee believed that
George had been executed by the
guards.
and by 1980, his records were adjusted
accordingly. He had been carried as
Missing in Action until it was clear that
he had been captured.
knowledge of him, and have not returned
his remains. He is one of nearly
2500 Americans still missing, prisoner
or unaccounted for from the Vietnam war.
missing in Southeast Asia. Most authorities
agree that many are alive.
Presidents Reagan and Bush have both pledged
to take necessary action to
free them if confirmed "proof" is found,
but distractors say that proof is
in hand, but the willingness to act is
missing.
be considered over. Future generations
of American fighting men who keep the
faith with their country must know that
their country will do everything to
keep the faith with them. These men must
be brought home.
by Lisa Beth Snyder
grasps a hand in a firm, long handshake
to compensate for the years when he
had no human touch.
some consequence to one in which food,
shelter, and life itself were
uncertain," retired Col. Benjamin H. Purcell
said to members of 13th Corps
Support Command who were gathered for
a prayer breakfast recently at Fort
Hood.
passenger during the Vietnam War was forced
to crash land. While he and
five other soldiers on that aircraft attempted
to get out of the area, only
one was able to evade being encircled
by the Viet Cong soldiers armed with
automatic weapons. As the senior soldier,
Purcell made the difficult
decision to surrender in order to have
a chance to survive.
through the jungle. The fifth soldier's
face and hands were burned in the
crash and the Viet Cong did not bind his
hands. When they briefly traveled
by boat, Purcell said he took this opportunity
to pray, and this gave him
faith to endure the humiliations of being
a prisoner of war.
Cong had killed the burned soldier, Pfc.
James E. George of Burlington,
Texas, because he was never seen again.
showed Col. Terry Tucker of Joint Task
Force Full Accounting, the probable
location of the shooting on a map. A body
was recovered at the site and it
is being identified at the Central Identification
Laboratory in Hawaii.
interrogated. He only answered the questions
required by the Geneva
Convention and gave his wife's address
so that she could be notified of his
whereabouts. She was not notified until
he was freed five years later.
when I realized it was my 40th birthday,"
he said. His captors noticed it
was his birthday, also, and followed their
custom by honoring his special
birthday and temporarily suspended the
interrogation and gave him some
food.
stayed for 30 days. Then they began marching
again and sores from leech
bites made it difficult to walk. He was
afraid he was going to stumble on
the night walk and be killed, so he said
he prayed for light. The soldier
in front of him turned on a flashlight
soon after.
interrogated. During the interrogation
he was told he was not a prisoner of
war, but a criminal of war and he would
be tried if he did not rethink his
ways. Purcell insisted he was a prisoner
of war and prayed for the strength
to endure the experience.
occasions our sense of humor," said Purcell,
the Army's most senior
prisoner of war in Vietnam.
mind alert and to begin planning his escape.
He fashioned tools for his
escape from metal fasteners in his cell
and with handles made from bread
dough.
prevented him from being with the soldiers
he felt responsible for.
hours he had during two escapes.
Purcell said. "I learned to live with
myself." He said he also developed a
greater love for his fellow humans from
this experience.
toothbrush handle, one from an aluminum
toothpaste tube, and the third from
bamboo; a communion set from various materials;
and a salt and pepper
shaker set. He never got to use the salt
and pepper set because he was not
given the condiments because of his escape
attempts.
worth living without a spirit to feed,"
he emphasized. It was his faith in
God and country that allowed him to experience
1,874 sunsets after
awakening each of those mornings to a
feeling that this would be the
morning he would go home.
to the Hanoi Hilton. Two months later on
March 27, 1973, he was released.
three things are important to him. "Human
life is the most precious thing,"
he said. "Secondly, freedom. Without freedom
life is an existence, not true
living. And communications, because of
the time spent in solitary
confinement.
Command chief of staff, said that Purcell
would "delve into the spiritual,
moral, and ethical aspects of our profession.
and eggs that morning.
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