William Dee McGonigle
~~MIA/POW~~
A Marine/Vietnam Veteran
that deserves recognition
RANK/BRANCH: E2/US Marine Corps
UNIT: Battery D, 2nd Battalion, 13th Marine Division
DATE OF BIRTH: October 29th, 1948
DATE OF LOSS: May 10th, 1968
HOME CITY: Wichita, Kansas
STATUS (IN 1973): Presumed Killed/Body Not Recovered
COUNTRY OF LOSS: South Vietnam
LOSS COORDINATES: 152208N 1074540E (YC965009)
SYNOPSIS: Five miles downriver of Kham Duc was the small forward operating base of Ngok Tavak. It was attacked by a NVA (North Vietnamese Army) infantry battalion at 0315 hours on May 10. The base was pounded by mortars and direct rocket fire. As the frontal assualt began, the Kham Duc CIDG soldiers moved toward the Marines in the fort yelling, "Don't shoot, don't shoot! Friendly, friendly!" Suddenly they lobbed grenades into the Marine howitzer positions and ran into the fort, where they shot several Marines with carbines and sliced claymore mine and communication wires.
The defenders suffered heavy caualties but stopped the main assault and killed the infiltrators. The NVA dug in along the hill slopes and grenaded the trenches where the mobile strike force soldiers were pinned by machine gun and rocket fire. An NVA flamethrower set the ammunition ablaze, banishing the murky flarelighted darkness for the rest of the night.
The fight continued til daybreak, ammunition and water were nearly exhausted, and Ngok Tavak was still being pounded by sporadic mortar fire. They asked permission to evacuate their positions but were told to "hold on" as "reinforcements were on the way". By noon the defenders decided that aerial reinforcement or evacuation was increasingly unlikely, and night would bring certain destruction. An hour later, they evacuated Ngok Tavak.
After survivors had gone about 1 kilometer, it was discovered that some were missing. Efforts were conducted to locate them (a search by a group from Battery D). They were searching along the perimeter when they were hit by enemy grenades and arms fire. The men on the team were never found. Included in this team were: PFC Thomas Blackman; LCpl. Joseph Cook; PFC Paul Czerwonka; LCpl. Thomas Fritsch; PFC Barry Hempel; LCpl. Raymond Heyne; Cpl. Gerald King; PFC Robert Lopez; PFC William McGonigle; LCpl. Donald Mitchell; and LCpl. James Sargent.
These eleven men went back to find their fellow countrymen,
can't we do the same for them?
It was assumed that all the missing were killed in action until about 1983, when the father of one of the men missing discovered a Marine Corps document which indicated that four of the men had been taken prisoner. The document listed four by name. Until then, the families had not been advised of the possibility there were any American prisoners taken other than Julius Long. A Vietnamese rallier identified the photograph of Roy C. Williams as positively having been a POW.
Until proof is obtained that the rest of the men lost at Ngok Tavak and Kham Duc are dead, their families will always wonder if they are among those said to still be alive in Southeast Asia.
We cannot emphasize enough how important it is to keep pushing this issue inside the Beltway...The need to get specific answers is more important now than ever before. If still alive, some MIAs are now in their 70's...They don't have much time left. We have to demand the answers from the bureaucrats and keep standing on their necks (figuratively speaking) until they get the message that THEY work for US and that we are serious about getting these long overdue responses. Diplomatic considerations aside...We can no longer allow questionable protocols established by pseudo-aristocratic armchair strategists, to determine or influence the fate of the men who were in the trenches while the diplomats were sharing sherry and canapes and talking about "Their Plans" for the future of SE Asia.
How the Vietnam War differed from other wars
Vietnam Death Trap-A Photo Journal~~A photographers pics of his tour
War Stories~~Veterans telling a few stories of when they were there
Vietnam Memorial MIA/POW Page
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