Unit: A Co, 3rd Recon BN, 3rd Marine Division, Khe
Sanh, South Vietnam
Date of Birth: 09 February 1947
Home City of Record: San Jose CA
Date of Loss: 10 May 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 163706N 1064404E (XD845485)
Status (in 1973): Killed in Action, Body Not Recovered
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Other Personnel in Incident: Heinz Ahlmeyer Jr.;
James N. Tycz; Malcolm T. Miller (all missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 01 April
1990 from one or more of the following: raw data from
U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with
POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
REMARKS: KIA WHN PTRL ATKD, WNDD RCV-J
SYNOPSIS: Third Class Petty Officer Malcolm T. Miller
was a hospital corpsman assigned to H & S Company at Khe Sanh, South
Vietnam. He was working with A Company, 3rd Marine Reconnaissance Battalion,
3rd Marine Division at Khe Sanh on May 9, 1967.
On that day, Miller joined a reconnaissance patrol from
A Company that had the mission of gathering intelligence information on
suspected enemy infiltration routes near their base. The patrol was helicopter
lifted into an area just south of the DMZ, where they found signs of recent
enemy activity, and moved to high ground to establish a night defensive
position.
Shortly after 12 p.m. the patrol came under heavy small
arms fire, and several of the team were wounded. Twelve hours later, after
numerous unsuccessful attempts, a helicopter was finally able to land and
retrieve the wounded. It was not possible to retrieve the bodies of those
who had died, including Miller, LCpl. Samuel A. Sharp, Jr., Sgt. James
N. Tycz, and 2Lt. Heinz Ahlmeyer, Jr. All were said to have died during
the action from wounds received from enemy small arms fire and and grenades.
The four men left behind near the DMZ were never found.
The government of Vietnam has been consistently uncooperative in releasing
remains they hold or in allowing access to known loss sites.
Even more tragically, evidence mounts that many Americans
are still alive in Southeast Asia, still prisoners from a war many have
long forgotten. It is a matter of pride in the armed forces, and especially
in the Marines Corps, that one's comrades are never left behind. Many men
have been killed trying to bring in a wounded or killed buddy. One can
imagine the men missing from A Company, as well as Malcolm Miller, had
they survived, being willing to go on one more patrol for those heroes
we left behind.
