PORTER EARL CALLOWAY
SSGT - Army - Selective Service Rank/Branch: E5/US Army 196th Light Infantry Brigade Unit: Company B, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry, 196th Light Infantry Brigade 21 year old Single, Negro, Male Date of Birth: 16 January 1947 (Lillie LA) From BERNICE, LOUISIANA His tour of duty began on Mar 12, 1968 Casualty was on Mar 12, 1968 Date of Loss: 11 March 1968 in QUANG TIN, SOUTH VIETNAM Country of Loss: South Vietnam Loss Coordinates: 153740N 1081647E (BT085295) Hostile, died captured Status (in 1973): Missing In Action GROUND CASUALTY GUN, SMALL ARMS FIRE Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground Body was not recovered Refno: 1078 Religion PROTESTANT Panel 44E - - Line 15
Other Personnel In Incident: Thomas J. Davis; Isiah R. McMillan (released POWs) Category: 2
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: SGT Porter E. Calloway was on his next to last month in Vietnam. Corporal Isiah R. "Ike" McMillan had just returned from R & R. SGT Thomas J. "Tom" Davis was one of the new guys in Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry.
In March 1968, members of 196th Bravo were sent deep into the bush around Happy Valley in South Vietnam. Setting up on Hill 407, Que Son Valley, Quang Tri Province, two platoons went on Search and Destroy; another line platoon and the six-man weapons platoon stayed on the hill with the company commander. Before lunch, a platoon radioed that it had walked into a thirty-man ambush, and that the platoon leader had been shot in the stomach. (A binocular search of the platoon location revealed that it was much more than 30 men.)
Leaving the weapons platoon (with McMillan and Davis and Calloway) on the hill, the company commander mobilized the line platoon to go to the assistance of the ambushed platoon, and ordered the two S & D platoons to merge. The weapons platoon was left without a radio. When a mortar attack commenced on the hill, the weapons platoon abandoned its position on the hill to seek cover on lower ground. Three men left by the east side and three went down the west side of the hill. As they had no radio, they were in peril both from the enemy, the troops below, and overhead spotter planes and support strike aircraft.
Davis, McMillan and Calloway, having gone down the east side of the hill, ran into a machine gun ambush. Davis, McMillan and Calloway were together, and began to retreat. Calloway was a short-timer and in a panic. He jumped up and started to run and was hit in the thigh. The others bandaged his leg and continued to move toward a small house at the edge of the rice paddy they were in. By the time they reached the hooch, Calloway was in shock from loss of blood. They evaded for several hours here until the Vietnamese smoked them out with gas grenades. The three were captured and taken away as prisoners of the Viet Cong.
By late night, Calloway was still bleeding. By morning, he was panicked because he couldn't breathe. Davis tried to help him, but his captors stopped him. When the guard understood Calloway was in crisis, he got help and took Calloway to a table where he died. McMillan reported during his debrief that they were about 1 1/2 kilometers northeast of the Fire Support base hill, and that the Vietnamese buried Calloway 50-75 meters east of this position near three buildings.
The U.S. maintained Porter E. Calloway in Missing in Action status. His classification was never changed to that of Prisoner of War. During the period he was maintained missing, he was advanced in rank to Staff Sergeant.
McMillan and Davis were held captives in Happy Valley and other camps in the South until they were moved north in 1971. For Americans captured in South Vietnam, life was 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. 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 to the neck; 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.
This was the life Davis and McMillan endured for the next three years. Ultimately, they were moved to Hanoi and released in 1973 in Operation Homecoming. Calloway's body has never been returned to his family for burial. The Vietnamese deny any knowledge of him.
Since the war ended, nearly 10,000 reports relating to Americans missing in Southeast Asia have been received by the U.S. Many officials, having reviewed this largely classified information have reluctantly concluded that hundreds of them are still alive in captivity today.
The U.S. continues to raise the question of the fate of Porter E. Calloway with the communist government of Vietnam. The Vietnamese continue to deny any knowledge of him.
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