Name: Eddie Lee Williams
Rank/Branch: E7/US Army Special Forces
Unit: Command & Control, MACV-SOG
Date of Birth: 10 February 1935
Home City: Miami FL
Loss Date: 03 October 1966
Country of Loss: Laos
Loss Coordinates: 165100N 1063200E (XD632624)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Other Personnel In Incident: Raymond Echevarria; James E. Jones
(missing);
indigeneous personnel; Bui Kim Tien (sole survivor)
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: SFC James R. Jones were all members of a 7 man recon team on a
classified mission into Laos.
The three were assigned to Headquarters &
Headquarters Company, 5th Special Forces Group,
but were under orders to
Command & Control, MACV-SOG.
MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observation
Group)
was a joint service high command
unconventional warfare task force engaged in
highly classified operations throughout Southeast Asia.
The 5th Special Forces channelled 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.
On October 3, 1966, Echevarria and his team were inserted into Laos near
the
border of the MR-1 region of South Vietnam( just west of the
Demilitarized
Zone), and immediately came under enemy fire,
apparently surrounded by enemy troops. The team requested immediate extraction, but heavy gunfire
prevented
the helicopter from landing on the LZ. Williams and Bui Kim Tien were
trying to evade capture.
Tien, who was later rescued, reported that SFC Williams
told him both Jones and Echevarria were seriously wounded,
perhaps near death.
On October 4, Williams and Bui spotted some caves, and Bui went forward
to investigate them, at which point Tien was spotted by hostile forces and
forced to leave the area. Tien later heard gunfire in the area, and
believed
that it was between SFC Williams and the enemy troops. Tien continued to
evade for the
rest of the day until he was picked up by friendly aircraft at
1500 hours.
Ray Echevarria's photo was later identified as that of a prisoner of war
by a defector.
According to CIA analysts, this identification was an error,
based
on the report of Bui Kim Tien that Echevarria and Jones were near death.
Tien
was polygraphed, and his debrief is believed to be accurate. But still,
doubts
remain. The fact is, no one saw Echevarria, Williams and Jones die. With
enemy
so close, there is ample reason to believe they might have been
captured.
Since American involvement in Indochina ended, over 8000 reports of
Americans
still held captive have been received by the U.S. government. Of the
nearly 600
American servicemen lost in Laos, not a single man has ever been
released. The
U.S. did not negotiate for the prisoners held in Laos. They were
abandoned by
the country they proudly served.
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.
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