On
12 May 1967, then Cpl.
Carlos Ashlock and LCpl.
Jose Agosto-Santos were
members of Company D, 1st
Battalion, 5th Marines,
1st Marine Division and
were participating in an
operational mission in the
vicinity of the village of
Que Son in the Rue Son
Valley. This valley was
rich in rice fields,
densely populated and
hotly contested. As the
Marines moved through the
valley, they encountered
two reinforced battalions
of Viet Cong (VC)
approximately 1mile
southeast of a primary
road and the same distance
northwest of a river. The
Americans were engaged in
heavy combat approximately
12 miles southwest of the
coastline, 14 miles
southeast of An Hoa, 18
miles northwest of Tam Ky
and 25 miles south of
DaNang, Quang Nam
Province, South Vietnam.
At
1750 hours, most of the
Americans in the patrol
were wounded or dead and
the Marines were forced to
withdraw under heavy enemy
fire. Jose Agosto-Santos,
who had been wounded in
the stomach and back and
Carlos Ashlock, who
sustained reportedly
mortal wounds, were both
left for dead in the rice
field where each fell.
Both Jose Agosto-Santos
and Carlos Ashlock were
immediately listed Killed
in Action-Body Not
Recovered.
Shortly
afterward, one of the
American survivors
reported seeing VC troops
carrying Agosto-Santos
away. Another report was
also received by US
intelligence from a local
Vietnamese official that
two wounded Marines had
been seen in the custody
of the VC. This report was
viewed as possibly
correlating to Carlos
Ashlock and Jose Agosto-Santos.
In June 1967, a former
Viet Cong doctor at
Hospital B-25 reported
Cpl. Ashlock was alive and
had been treated at his
hospital. According to
another US intelligence
report, he was also seen
alive in July 1967. In
spite of this information,
neither Marine's status
was upgraded to either
Prisoner of War or Missing
in Action.
In
reality, LCpl. Jose Agosto-Santos
was not killed, but
captured by the
Communists. For about a
month he was cared for in
a cave by the Viet Cong.
On his first night in
captivity, a VC medical
team removed two bullets
from his body, which was
an excruciating procedure
as the surgery was done
without anesthetics.
During his recovery the VC
treated him well while
interrogating him as well
as manipulating him with
promises of an early
release in exchange for
his cooperation. In June
he was allowed to write a
letter to his father
shortly before being moved
to another POW camp.
Some
of these camps were
actually way stations the
VC used for a variety of
reasons. Others were
regular POW camps.
Regardless of size and
primary function,
conditions in the VC run
camps frequently included
the prisoners' being tied
at night to their bamboo
bunks anchored by rope to
a post in their small
bamboo shelters. In others
they were held in bamboo
cages, commonly referred
to as tiger cages, and in
yet other camps the dense
jungle itself provided the
bars to their cage. There
was rarely enough food and
water to sustain them, and
as a result, the Americans
suffered from a wide
variety of illnesses in
addition to their injuries
and wounds.
In
the new prison camp, known
as "ST18," Jose
Agosto-Santos was
incarcerated with other
American POWs including
Luis A. Ortiz-Rivera. PFC
Ortiz-Rivera was a US Army
soldier, who had been
captured six months
earlier, and like LCpl.
Agosto-Santos, was from
Puerto Rico. Both men
barely spoke English. To
the other POWs, the two
Puerto Ricans seemed to be
unduly subservient and
amiable toward their
captors. Further, they
were showered with
favoritism as the VC
endeavored to exploit
their Hispanic identity.
On
23 January 1968, just
before the beginning of
the communist initiated
Tet offensive, the VC
released PFC Luis A.
Ortiz-Rivera and LCpl.
Jose Agosto-Santos in a
propaganda move during a
ceremony outside a hamlet
near the provincial
capital of Tam Ky. The day
after their release, the
remaining POWs were moved
to another camp located
some six hours to the
northwest of ST18.
Ironically,
neither the Marine Corps
nor United States
government had any idea
Jose Agosto-Santos
survived his wounds until
the time he was released
from captivity. During his
debriefing, Jose Agosto-Santos
told US intelligence
personnel he behaved as a
model prisoner because he
felt he owed his life to
the Viet Cong who saved
him by nursing him back to
health. Further, he
reported he did not know
if Cpl. Ashlock was killed
or only wounded, as he
never saw him .
In
March 1991, Vietnam
repatriated a group of
remains, one set of which
they identified as those
of Carlos Ashlock. The
remains were taken to the
Central Identification
Laboratory-Hawaii (CIL-HI)
for examination. After an
examination of all remains
returned to US control in
March 1991, CIL-HI
personnel determined that
neither the remains
identified as Cpl.
Ashlock,
nor any other remains
returned at that time,
could be associated with
Carlos Ashlock.
American
team members from the
Joint Task Force for Full
Accounting (JTFFA) have
conducted an additional
investigation into the
case of Cpl. Ashlock.
During a field
investigation, JTFFA
members located witnesses
who provided information
concerning the capture of
Carlos Ashlock. Some of
the witnesses also
reported multiple burial
sites, but none of the
witnesses could provide
information on the burial
site locations and no
remains were recovered.
According to JTFFA
personnel, none of the
information gathered from
these witnesses increases
the knowledge already
known that Cpl. Ashlock
was last known alive and
in captivity.
If
Carlos Ashlock died in
combat as our government
originally believed, or in
captivity as a Prisoner of
War as the Vietnamese
witnesses claim, he has
the right to have his
remains returned to his
family friends and
country. If, on the other
hand, he survived
captivity as the US
intelligence indicates,
his fate like that of many
other Americans who remain
unaccounted for in
Southeast Asia could be
quite different.
Since
the end of the Vietnam War
well over 21,000 reports
of American prisoners,
missing and otherwise
unaccounted for have been
received by our
government. Many of these
reports document LIVE
American Prisoners of War
remaining captive
throughout Southeast Asia
TODAY.
Military
personnel in Vietnam were
called upon to fly and
fight in many dangerous
circumstances, and they
were prepared to be
wounded, killed or
captured. It probably
never occurred to them
that they could be
abandoned by the country
they so proudly served.
Incidental Information
