Welcome to My P.O.W.-M.I.A. Page

My Adopted P.O.W.-M.I.A Page



This is My P.O.W.-M.I.A page I am truly honored to display this on My Homepage.  It means alot to everyone and it is very important to try and help bring our Soliders home where they belong.  So many people have forgotten what they have done for us and our country.  In My opinion the leaders of our country should go and find them and bring them home whether they are dead or alive so it would put many familys at ease.  It is sad that our government let them stay over there they belong home, if it wasn't for them our country wouldn't stay free considering they did go over there and give their lives for us.  So if you agree with Me then PLEASE go and adopt your own P.O.W.-M.I.A Solider and lets all try and do something about it instead of just saying it would be nice lets do something about it PLEASE PLEASE I urge you to.  If you want to Adopt a Solider click on the image below. 





Thank you for joining "Operation Just Cause". Here is the information you requested.



Name: John Theodore Gallagher
Rank/Branch: E6/US Army Special Forces
Unit: Command & Control North, MACV-SOG, 5th Special Forces Group
Date of Birth: 17 June 1943 (Summit NJ)
Home City of Record: Hamden CT
Date of Loss: 05 January 1968
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 161907N 1063445E (XD701021)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: UH1D
Other Personnel In Incident: James Williamson; Dennis C. Hamilton;
Ernest F.
Briggs; Sheldon D. Schultz (all missing); (indigenous team members,
names,
numbers, fates unknown)



REMARKS: NO SIGN OF CREW

SYNOPSIS: On January 5, 1968, WO Dennis C. Hamilton, aircraft commander;
WO
Sheldon D. Schultz, pilot; SP5 Ernest F. Briggs, Jr., crew chief; SP4
James P.
Williamson, crewman, and SSgt. John T. Gallagher, passenger; were aboard
a UH1D
helicopter (tail # 66-1172) on a mission to infiltrate an indigenous
reconnaissance patrol into Laos.

The reconnaissance patrol and SSgt. Gallagher were operating under
orders to
Command & Control North, MACV-SOG (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 (although it was not a Special Forces group) through Special
Operations Augmentation (SOA), which provided their "cover" while under
secret
orders to MACV-SOG.  The teams performed deep penetration missions of
strategic
reconnaissance and interdiction which were called, depending on the time
frame,
"Shining Brass" or "Prairie Fire" missions.

As the aircraft approached the landing zone about 20 miles inside Laos
south of
Lao Bao, it came under heavy 37mm anti-aircraft fire while at an
altitude of
about 300 feet above ground level.  The aircraft immediately entered a
nose-low
vertical dive and crashed. 

Upon impact with the ground, the aircraft burst into flames which were
10 to 20
feet high.  No radio transmissions were heard during the helicopter's
descent,
nor were radio or beeper signals heard after impact.  Four attempts to
get into
the area of the downed helicopter failed due to intense ground fire. 

During the next two days more attempts to get to the wreckage failed.
The pilot
of one search helicopter maneuvered to within 75 feet of the crash site
before
being forced out by enemy fire.  The pilot who saw the wreckage stated
that the
crashed helicopter was a mass of burned metal and that there was no part
of the
aircraft that could be recognized.  No signs of life were seen in the
crash area. 

Weather delayed further search attempts for a couple of days.  After the
weather
improved, the successful insertion of a ground team was made east of the
crash
site to avoid enemy fire.  The team was extracted after the second day,
finding
nothing.  The crash site was located near the city of Muong Nong in
Savannakhet
Province, Laos. 

Nearly 600 Americans were lost in Laos. The Pathet Lao insisted that the
"tens
of tens" of Americans they held would only be released from Laos, but
the U.S.
did not officially recognize the communist faction in Laos and did not
negotiate for American prisoners being held by them.  Not one American
held by
the Lao was ever released. 

Alarmingly, evidence continues to mount that Americans were left as
prisoners
in Southeast Asia and continue to be held today. Unlike "MIAs" from
other wars,
most of the nearly 2500 men and women who remain missing in Southeast
Asia can
be accounted for.  Perhaps the crew of the helicopter did not survive the
crash,
but until there is positive proof of their deaths, we cannot forget
them.  If
even one was left behind at the end of the war, alive, (and many
authorities
estimate the numbers to be in the hundreds), we have failed as a nation
until
and unless we do everything possible to secure his freedom and bring him
home. 
I 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 70s...  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. 





If you'd like to see what some others are doing in addition to writing
their congressmen, senators and the Whitehouse, check out some of these
sites:
M.I.A. List



Another remarkable site is by an 11 year old angel who never even set
foot on American soil...  She not only put up a page... she started a major
project for an organization of Kids on the Net called KeyPals
International. 
Her MIA page is here but
don't miss her Bring Grandpa Home page
Click Here.
If you come away from that site without a lump in your throat, then you
just weren't paying attention. 

There are also several others who set up MIA pages with links to all
other MIA pages.

Take care,
Gunny





Again Please go and adopt a solider and let them know we all care and still believe in them. 



This Page was last updated June 3,1999