Timothy Roy Bodden 
Music to accompany this page: God Bless the USA, by Lee Greenwood All gave some and some gave all Some stood through for the red, white, and blue, and some had to fall. And if you ever think of me, Think of all your liberties, and recall, Some gave all. by Billy Ray Cyrus | |||
| Timothy Roy Bodden, was born November 6, 1942. At the time of his enlistment in the United State Marine Corps, he listed his hometown as Downers Grove, Illinois.
In June of 1967, Timothy was a Sargent with the HMM 165 Unit of Marine Air Group 36, serving The events of the day are provided in a synopsis from Operation Just Cause: The USMC aircraft picked up a U.S. Army Special Forces team attached to MACV-SOG, Command and Control, and the ARVN troops they were working with. Military Assistance Command Vietnam Studies and Observation Group (MACV-SOG) was a joint service high command unconventional warfare task force engaged in highly classified operations throughout Southeast Asia. The 5th Special Forces channeled personnel into MACV-SOG (not a Special Forces group) through Special Operations Augmentation (SOA) which provided their "cover" while under secret orders to MACV-SOG. These teams performed deep penetration missions of strategic reconnaissance and interdiction which were called, depending on the time frame, "Shining Brass" or "Prairie Fire" missions. The aircraft received extensive automatic small arms fire upon takeoff from the Landing Zone, took numerous hits and crashed 350 meters from the Landing Zone, located about 15 miles inside Laos west of the A Shau Valley. The helicopter did not burn on impact, and continued to receive fire. Three ARVN troops were able to return to the Landing Zone where the troops remaining at the Landing Zone were extracted the following day. The loss coordinates are 161914N 1064049E (XD795050) The troops waiting at the Landing Zone could not search because of the hostile threat in the area. Air searches located the survivors of the crash, but they could not be evacuated. The only America found to be in a position to be safely evacuated was SFC Wilklow. He gave the following account of what happened to the crew and passengers aboard the CH46A: SFC Dexter appeared uninjured and left the wreckage with a large number of ARVN troops. Capt. Hanson was wounded and outside the helicopter, but stated that he had to return to get his carbine. The Marine Corps believes he died of the wounds he received when the aircraft was overrun, although Hanson's wife later identified her husband in a widely distributed Vietnamese propaganda photograph of a pilot being captured. When last seen, all the other Americans were still in the wreckage, and enemy troops (the U.S. Army says they were Viet Cong; the U.S. Marines say they were North Vietnamese Army - possibly a joint force of both) were tossing grenades toward the aircraft with no attempt to capture the personnel inside. Wilklow left the crash site, and noted that gunfire suddenly stopped. He continued to evade the enemy and was picked up 3 days later. When Mr. Ky, the Nung Commander was being evacuated by the last helicopter out, he noted several men (undoubtedly Dexter and the ARVN) in a large bomb crater firing red star clusters from a flare gun. Frank Cius was taken prisoner and released from Hanoi in 1973. He was one of the dozen or so captured by the Vietnamese and taken immediately to Hanoi claimed to be the "Laos" prisoners. In reality, none of the dozen had been held in Laos. Ronald Dexter, according to Frank Cius, was captured, and died in captivity on July 29, 1967. John Gardner, according to the USMC, died on the ground after the crash of the aircraft due to intense enemy fire. Billy Laney was last seen lying wounded on the floor of the aircraft between a crewmember with a broken back and the door gunner with a head wound.  The USMC states that Bodden, was shot in the back and never left the aircraft, but reports received by the National League of Families indicate that he was definitely alive after the aircraft crashed. The U.S. did not know Cius was captured until he was released, evidently believing he never exited the aircraft, and Wilklow had indicated that the Vietnamese were not trying to capture the occupants of the aircraft. Therefore, as door gunner, he must have been the "door gunner with the head wound", and Bodden the "crewmember with a broken back".
The "Homecoming (Egress Recap) Summary of all non-returnees reported" by returnees dated 24 April 1973 quotes returnee Frank Edward Cius Jr as saying: "Bodden was the port gunner with me. As the aircraft lifted, Bodden was hit in the stomach and went down. As he stood up clutching his stomach, he took another hit in the stomach and fell to the floor of aircraft. I was unable to examine Bodden but his eyes remained closed and his body was motionless the entire time we were in the aircraft. I believe Bodden was dead when the helicopter crashed." All Biographical and loss information on POWs provided by Operation Just Cause have been supplied by Chuck and Mary Schantag of POWNET. Please check with POWNET regularly for updates. | |||
Timothy Bodden continued . . .
[ Indianapolis ] [ Downers Grove ] [ Chicago ] [ Timothy Bodden ] This Web Site and its contents (eg. HTML, design and images) are copyright 1999, 2000. Please notify the author if you wish to use any of the contents or images. |
in Laos.
