ALL our MIA HEROS!....Thank you Debbie aka Ravenhair..
Love you *S*
Spirit has gone to Glory,
but their Earthly Bodies still need to be
BROUGHT HOME!!!
HEROS are NOT forgotten!
All Americans need to know this information. Thanks.
Name: Dennis Wayne "Denny Hammond
Rank/Branch: E4/US Marine Corps
Unit: 2D, CAG III, MAF
Date of Birth: 26 April 1946
Home City of Record: Detroit MI
Date of Loss: 08 February 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 155900N 1081200E (BT023703)
Status (in 1973): Prisoner/Killed in Captivity
Category: 1
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: ground
Refno: 1042
Other Personnel in Incident: Joseph S. Zawtocki (remains returned)
from U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence with POW/MIA families,
published sources, interviews.
Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK in 1998.
REMARKS: 700308 DIC - KUSHNER
SYNOPSIS: For Americans captured in South Vietnam,
daily life could be expected to be brutally difficult.
Primarily, these men suffered from
disease induced by an unfamiliar and inadequate
diet- dysentery, edema, skin fungus and eczema.
The inadequate diet coupled with inadequate medical
care led to the deaths of many.
Besides dietary problems, these POWs had other
problems as well. They were moved regularly
to avoid being in areas that would
be detected by U.S. troops, and occasionally
found themselves in the midst of U.S.
bombing strikes. Supply lines to the camps
were frequently cut off, and when they
were, POWs and guards alike suffered.
Unless they were able to remain in
one location long enough to grow vegetable
crops and tend small animals, their diet
was limited to rice and what they
could gather from the jungle.
In addition to the primitive lifestyle imposed
on these men, their Viet Cong guards
could be particularly brutal in their treatment.
For any minor infraction, including conversation with
other POWs, the Americans were psychologically and
physically tortured. American POWs brought back stories
of having been buried; held for days
in a cage with no protection from
insects and the environment; having had water
and food withheld; being shackled and beaten.
The effects of starvation and torture frequently
resulted in hallucinations and extreme disorientation. Men
were reduced to animals, relying on the
basic instinct of survival as their guide.
After months in this psychological condition, many
POWs, lucky to survive, discovered that they
were infinitely better treated if they became
docile and helpful prisoners. Unlike in the
North, the POWs in the south did
not as naturally assume a military order
among themselves - perhaps because the preponderance of
POWs in the North were officers as
opposed to a larger community of enlisted
men in the South - and frequently, there
was no strong leader to encourage resistance
and to bring the comfort of order to a chaotic existance.
From the camps in the South came
the group of American POWs ultimately charged
with collaboration with the enemy. These charges
were later dropped, but are indicative of
the strong survival instinct inherent in man,
and the need for strong leadership.
It is common knowledge that nearly all
POWs "violated" the Military Code of Conduct
in one way or another; some to greater
degrees than others. Those who resisted utterly, the record
shows, were executed or killed in more
horrible ways. Americans tended to be moved
from camp to camp in groups. One
of the groups in South Vietnam contained
a number of Americans whose fates are varied.
Capt. William "Ike" Eisenbraun was attached to
the 17th Infantry regiment of the Seventh
Division ("Buffalos") when he fought in Korea.
He was awarded a Purple Heart for
wounds received in Korea. In 1961, Capt.
Eisenbraun volunteered for duty in Vietnam because
he believed in what we were trying
to accomplish there. He was one of
the earliest to go to Southeast Asia
as an advisor to the Royal Lao
and South Vietnamese Armies.
On his fourth tour of duty, Eisenbraun
served as Senior Advisor, Headquarters MACV, SQ5891,
U.S. Army Special Forces. He was at
jungle outpost Ba Gia near Quang Ngai in
South Vietnam when the post was overrun by
an estimated 1000-1500 Viet Cong force.
Newspapers described it as "one of the
bloodiest battles of the war to date".
A survivor told newsmen the Viet Cong
attacked in "human waves and couldn't be
stopped." There were only 180 men defending
the outpost. Captain Eisenbraun was initially reported
killed in action.
Later, two Vietnamese who had been captured
and escaped reported that Capt. Eisenbraun had
been captured, was being held prisoner, and
was in good health. Through the debriefings
of returned POWs held with Eisenbraun, it
was learned that he died as a POW.
One returned POW said that on about
September 1, 1967, Eisenbraun fell out of his
hammock (which was about five feet above
a pile of logs) and landed on
his right side. For about 5 days
after the fall, Eisenbraun continued his daily
activites, but complained of a severe pain
in his side. After that period he
stayed in bed and at about 0100
hours on September 8, LCpl. Grissett awakened
PFC Ortiz-Rivera and told him that
Eisenbraun had stopped breathing.
Another POW said Ike had died as
a result of torture after an escape
attempt in 1967. Robert Garwood added that
Ike had provided leadership for the prisoners
at the camp, and was an obstacle
to the Viet Cong in interrogating the
other prisoners. He also spoke fluent Vietnamese,
which made him a definite problem. Garwood
and Eisenbraun had been held alone together
at one point in their captivity, and
Ike taught Bobby the secrets of survival
he had learned in SF training, and
in his years in the jungle. Bobby
states that Ike knew and taught him
which insects could be eaten to fend
off common jungle diseases, and that he
and Ike jokingly planned to write a
cookbook called "100 ways to cook a rat".
Garwood said that Ike had been severely
beaten following the escape attempt, and that
one night he was taken from his
cage and not returned. The next morning,
Garwood was told that Ike had fallen
from his hammock and died.
Ike Eisenbraun was buried at the camp
in Quang Nam Province along with other
POWs who had died of torture and
starvation. His grave was marked with a
rock inscribed by Garwood. A map has
been provided to the U.S. showing the
precise location of the little cemetery and
grave, yet Ike's remains have not been returned.
Bobby Garwood had been captured on September
28, 1965 as he was driving a
jeep in Quang Nam Province. Garwood made
international headlines when he created an international
incident by smuggling a note out revealing
his existance. The note resulted in his
release in March 1979, after having been
a prisoner of war for 14 years.
The Marine Corps immediately charged him with
collaboration and assault on a fellow POW,
and he was ultimately charged and dishonorably
discharged. He is the only serviceman to
be charged with these crimes from the
Vietnam War, and many feel he was
singled out to discredit the stories he
has told regarding other Americans held long
after the war was over in Vietnam.
Several American POWs were held at a camp
in Quang Nam Province numbered ST18, including
Eisenbraun, Garwood, Grissett, LCpl. Jose Agosto-Santos,
PFC Luis Antonio Ortiz-Rivera, Marine LCpl.
Robert C. Sherman, Capt. Floyd H. Kushner,
W2 Francis G. Anton, SP4 Robert Lewis,
PFC James F. Pfister, PFC Earl C.
Weatherman, Cpl. Dennis W. Hammond and Sgt.
Joseph S. Zawtocki.
Agosto-Santos was captured when his unit
was overrun in Quang Nam Province on
May 12, 1967. Cpl. Carlos Ashlock
had been killed in the same action,
and he and Agosto-Santos had been
left for dead. Agosto-Santos had been
wounded in the stomach and back. For
about a month, he had been cared
for in a cave by the Viet
Cong. Jose felt he owed his life
to the Viet Cong. He was released
in a propaganda move by the Vietnamese
on January 23, 1968. Ashlock was never
seen again.
Ortiz-Rivera was a Puerto Rican who
barely spoke English. His Army unit was
overrun in Binh Dinh Province several miles
north of the city of Phu Cat
on December 17, 1966, and Ortiz-Rivera
was captured. Ortiz-Rivera was not a
problem prisoner, according to other returnees. He
was released with Agosto-Santos January 23,
1968.
Cpl. Bobby Sherman told fellow POWs that
he had been on picket duty with
ARVNs on June 24, 1967 when he
decided to go to a nearby village
to "get laid". The Vietnamese girl he
met there led him to the Viet
Cong instead. Sherman had been on his
second tour of Vietnam. During his first
tour, he had suffered psychological problems because
of the grisly job assigned to him
of handling corpses of his comrades killed
in action. In the spring of 1968,
Sherman, Hammond, Weatherman, Daly, and Zawtocki, with
the help of other POWs, attempted to
escape. Sherman beat a guard in the
attempt and was recaptured and punished. He
was held in stocks for many days
and fellow POWs said he "got crazy
and never recovered." They said he spent
months as a "zombie" and "never was
there" after that. According to Harold Kushner,
Bobby Sherman died on November 23, 1968.
The POWs buried him in the little
cemetery with Ike Eisenbraun. In March 1985,
the remains of Bobby Sherman were returned
during a period that Eisenbraun's daughter was
publicly asking the President to bring her
father home. A map had been published of the
cemetery, and many wondered if there was a connection.
Capt. Harold Kushner had been the sole
survivor of the crash of his UH1D
helicopter on a mountainside in Quang
Nam Province on November 30, 1967.
Kushner was a Army Medical Corps Flight
Surgeon and had broken a tooth and
sustained a wound to his shoulder when
the helicopter crashed. He was subsequently captured
by the Viet Cong. During his captivity,
his wife, Valerie, became active in the
effort to end the war, believing that
was the only hope her husband had
of returning home. Kushner became ambivilent
about the war himself, and when held
in North Vietnam, made propaganda tapes
until informed by the more organized
prisoners captured and held in the North
that it was prohibited. Kushner was released
March 16, 1973 from North Vietnam.
(Note: a number of other Americans were
held with this group including PFC
David N. Harker; James A. Daly;
Richard R. Rehe; Willie A. Watkins;
Francis E. Cannon; Richard F. Williams;
and James H. Strickland. One detailed account
of the captivity of these men can
be found in "The Survivors" by Zalen
Grant. Another can be read in "Conversations
With The Enemy", written by Winston Groom
and Duncan Spencer. Homecoming II Project - 2408
Hull Rd. - Kinston NC 28501 -also maintains
synopsis accounts of these men.)
W2 Francis Gene "Bones" Anton was the
pilot of a UH1C helicopter, code name
"Firebird". On January 5, 1968, his crewchief
was SP4 Robert Lewis III, and door
gunner was PFC James F. Pfister. The
crew, flying out of the 71st Assault
Helicopter Company, was shot down as they
were trying to assist C Company, under
heavy mortar attack at Happy Valley in
Quang Nam Province. Their co-pilot had escaped
capture. Anton is one of the few
POWs who believed that Garwood, although clearly
a collaborator, was still a loyal American,
helpful to his fellow POWs. Anton, according
to other POWs was "always cussing the
Vietnamese". He was released from North Vietnam
on March 16, 1973. When Cannon, Williams,
Harker and McMillan were brought to the
POW camp at Happy Valley, they found
Anton, Pfister and Lewis well fed and clean.
Pfister later made propaganda tapes at the
Plantation in Hanoi in April 1971.
Garwood called him the "head snitch" in
one of the camps along the Rock
River and White River in South Vietnam.
Both Pfister and Lewis were released on
March 5, 1973. None of the three
were considered by superior officers to be
among those who criminally collaborated with the enemy.
Russ Grissett was on a search mission
for a missing USMC officer when he
became separated from his unit on January
22, 1966. He was with the elite
1st Force Recon, and was captured by
the Viet Cong in Quang Ngai Province.
Russ was several inches over 6' tall and
carried a normal weight of around 190
pounds. After 2 years in captivity, however,
his weight had dropped to around 125
pounds. Grissett suffered particularly from dysentery
and malaria, and in his weakened condition
begged his fellow POWs not to tell
him any secrets. He had already been
accused of sabotaging an escape plan by
Kushner. He found it difficult to resist,
and willingly made propaganda tapes about
"lenient treatment". When Ortiz-Rivera and
Agosto-Santos were released, he had "behaved"
enough that he was tremendously disappointed
that he was not released with them.
During one period of near-starvation, in
late November 1969, Grissett caught and killed
the camp's kitchen cat. It was a
dangerous move, and fellow POWs watched helplessly
and innocently as guards beat Grissett for
the crime and he never recovered. Grissett
was buried in the camp's cemetery by
his fellow POWs. Harold Kushner stated that
Grissett died on December 2, 1969.
David Harker, another returned POW, stated that
he had died at 3:30 a.m. on November 23,
1968. On June 23, 1989, the U.S. announced
that the Vietnamese had "discovered" the remains
of Russ Grissett and returned them to
the U.S. (Note: the "cat" incident spawned
the assault charges against Garwood. Garwood, enraged
that others had stood by while Grisset
was mortally beaten, back-handed one of
the bystanders in the stomach and asked,
"How could you let them do this
to Russ?" Some witnesses stated that the
blow was not a hard one intended
to injure, but seemingly for emphasis.)
Dennis Wayne "Denny" Hammond and Joseph S.
Zawtocki were Marines who were part of
a pacification team when captured during
the Tet offensive on February 8, 1968.
Denny was a tall, lean, good-looking
man thought to be part American Indian.
He attempted escape with the other POWs
in the spring of 1968 and was
shot in the leg by Montagnards in
a nearby village where Denny had beaten
a guard to escape. Part of the
"duties" of those POWs healthy enough was
to harvest oranges in nearby Montagnard
orchards. The POWs were happy to do
this because it meant badly needed exercise
and the opportunity for additional food.
Daly was once accused by guards of
stealing oranges that Hammond had stolen. It
was on one of these workdays that
the POWs effected their ill-fated escape.
After the escape attempt and recapture,
Sherman remained relatively healthy for a time,
but in early March, 1970, died. He
was buried near the camp and his
grave marked by a bamboo cross. (Hammond
died on 7 or 8 of March,
depending on the source.)
Joe Zawtocki was a stocky, powerful, fair-haired
man of Polish descent. He and Garwood
formed a close friendship and exchanged rings.
Each promised the other that if released
alone, they would contact the other's family.
Joe died on December 24, 1968 of
starvation and was buried near the POW
camp. Davis, a returnee, says that Garwood
lost Joe's ring. Garwood states that, upon
his return, he gave Joe's ring to
the Defense Intelligence Agency. Several years
later, he learned that DIA had
never returned the ring to Joe's family.
Joe Zawtocki's remains were returned to the
U.S. on August 15, 1985.
Perhaps one of the strangest cases involved
in this group of POWs is that
of Pvt. Earl Clyde Weatherman. Weatherman
was in the Marine brig at
Da Nang where he had been confined
for slugging an officer in 1967. On
November 8, 1967, he escaped the brig
(which constitutes desertion). Intelligence indicates that
he paid a Vietnamese driver to take
him to his Vietnamese girlfriend's house, but
the driver instead delivered him to the
Viet Cong. A tall, muscular young man
of about 20 years old with
reddish-blond hair and blue eyes,
Weatherman was detained in the POW camps
in Quang Nam Province, and was party
to the ill-fated escape attempt in
the spring of 1968. Opinion was divided
among the POWs regarding the political loyalties
of Earl Weatherman. Harker felt his alliance to
the Viet Cong was only an act.
Weatherman had once said to him, "Don't
believe everything you hear about me." Others
felt he was clearly a turncoat. Perhaps
Garwood stated it most accurately when he
said, "Weatherman's only crime was falling in
love with the wrong person - a communist."
It was widely told that during the April
1, 1968 escape attempt, Weatherman was
killed. However, Garwood states that he heard
of and saw Weatherman after 1973 when
other U.S. POWs were returned, and
years after his supposed death in South
Vietnam. Intelligence indicates that Weatherman
continued to work for the communists, and
lived with a Vietnamese wife and family.
One position said to have been held
by his was with the Vietnamese government's
department of construction - the Cong
Tyxay Dung. Garwood last knew him to
be at Bavi, living with a Vietnamese woman.
In 1986, several national news articles
revealed that intelligence documents showed
at least 7 missing Americans had
been seen alive in Vietnam in the
last dozen years, including Weatherman.
Some accounts added that Weatherman had
smuggled a note out of Vietnam that
he wished to come home and
bring with him his wife and children.
Weatherman's father was allegedly notified of this.
The POW/MIA groups reverberated with anticipation,
knowing that if Weatherman came home, a
new source of information on those
men still missing would be available. Several
activists questioned a Congressional aide regarding
Weatherman. They asked, "When will Weatherman
be able to come home? We
understand the holdup is visas for his
wife and children." The aide, with
a caring and sympathetic look on his
face, replied, "I don't know.
I just don't know."
Of this group of prisoners and missing,
only Weatherman, Hammond, Ashlock and
Eisenbraun have not returned home, alive or
dead. Ashlock was left for dead on
the battlefield. Hammond and Eisenbraun are
dead, but still in enemy hands.
Weatherman, for whatever reason, chose love
of a woman over love of his country
and remained behind. Can America close
its doors to a man who may
have a wealth of information on
Americans still alive in Vietnam? If
he now wishes to return to his
homeland, can we be less forgiving to
him that we were to those Americans
who fled to Canada to avoid the war?
-----------------------------
Attempted escapes in SVN (Note 1)
Hi CC:
Sometimes we get a big dose of reality as
to the barbaric actions of our captors in SEA.
This first hand story from Hal speaks volumns about
those who tortured us while apologists like Jane defended them.
Thanks, Hal, for sharing your experiencees.
(DOD simply lists them as having died in captivity). Mike
------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date: Sat, 23 Aug 1997 19:53:09 -0400
From: Hal Kushner
Subject: Re: Attempted escapes in NVN (No. 14)
Hi Mike:
Here's an escape attempt I witnessed first hand.
L/Cpl Dennis Hammond, USMC and Pvt E C Weatherman, USMC...
attempted to escape by overpowering a guard while
on a "Co-Mi" [a starchy tuberous plant
called Yucca in Puerto Rico] run in SVN.
They were gone about an hour, were recaptured.
Weatherman executed on the spot. Hammond carried back
tied on a stick like a pig.
Beaten severely in front of the rest of us
and placed in stocks and on very reduced
rations. His legs were pinned to the ground
and he was fed one coffee cup of rotten
rice per day. He had to defecate in
his hands and throw it away from him
and spent about two weeks in the weather
in stocks with daily beatings. He subsequently
died about 18 mos later.
[ssrep6.txt 02/09/93]
South Vietnam
Dennis W. Hammond
Joseph S. Zawtocki
(1042) On February 8, 1968, Corporals Zawtocki and Hammond
were captured in South Vietnam during the 1968
Tet Offensive. They were initially held with other
U.S. POWs who were present when Zawtocki and
Hammond died in captivity. Hammond's name appeared on
the Provisional Revolutionary Government's died in
captivity list, and his date of death
was recorded as March 7, 1970. Both
were later declared dead/body not recovered.
In August 1985, the remains of American POWs
who died in captivity in South Vietnam
in Quang Nam Province, the same prison camp
where Hammond and Zawtocki were held, were repatriated
by Vietnam. Zawtocki's remains were identified. The remains
attributed to Corporal Hammond were determined to be
the remains of a Southeast Asian Mongoloid.
Based on all available information, the remains of
those who died in this jungle prison had
been recovered by Vietnamese officials during the 1970s.
---------------------------- [ssrep3.txt 02/09/93] Other Indications
After Operation Homecoming, U.S. officials and others
looked to new information about POWs' experience
for additional leads. For many years, POWs were
not permitted to send or receive letters. When
mail finally was allowed by the North Vietnamese,
the U.S. gained new information about its POWs.
Defense Secretary Melvin Laird recalled that about 5000
letters had been received and, through them, about
470 POWs in Vietnam and five in Laos
had been identified.
Five individuals verified in captivity by war-time
letters but did not return at Operation Homecoming:
1968. He wrote a letter that was never mailed
by his captors that positively identified him as captured.
A 1968 Vietnamese radio broadcast indicated that Hammond
made a statement. Hammond subsequently
died in captivity; his death and burial were verified by a POW who returned.
Hammond's remains have not been repatriated.
Brothers, HERO'S to have?? NO!!!
They are not, nor will EVER be FORGOTTEN!
demand to know where our Men are,
AND BRING THEM HOME!
This site is owned by Summer |
