ENGLANDER, LAWRENCE JESSE
Name: Lawrence Jesse Englander
Rank/Branch: E5/US Army Special Forces
Unit: Detachment A-109 5th Special Forces Group Date of
Birth: 19 April 1943
Home City of Record: Van Nuys CA
Date of Loss: 02 May 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 1054559N 1075019E
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Other Personnel In Incident: none missing
REMARKS:
Source: Compiled from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S.
Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published
sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK.
SYNOPSIS: Sgt. Lawrence Englander was an advisor on a CIDG heliborne assault
operation conducted southwest of Thuong Duc Special Forces Camp. His unit came
under intense automatic weapons fire from fortified NVA positions 8 miles from
the camp. Englander stated by radio that he was wounded in the foot and arm
and pinned down in an open field behind a dead Vietnamese radio operator, but
refused help because he claimed to be "zeroed in", that any movement would
bring heavy fire, and that he would try to crawl back to friendly lines.
Englander's plan was to move back to the reserve element to lead them to the
forward element. While moving to the rear, Englander was again hit by enemy
fire. LLDB Lieutenant Ho Tang Dzu stated that he saw him hit by machine gun
fire in the back and head, but attempts to reach him failed and the battlefield
was abandoned. He felt that the hits Englander took were probably fatal.
When sweeps of the area were conducted later, no trace of Englander was found.
While it was common for the Vietnamese to bury American casualties and
carefully conceal the graves, the possibility also exists that Englander
survived to be captured. He was classified Missing In Action, and is among
nearly 2500 Americans who remain unaccounted for in Vietnam.
Evidence mounts that hundreds of Americans are still alive, captive in
Southeast Asia. Whether Englander is among them is unknown, but one can
imagine him proudly moving back to lead them forward to freedom if he could.
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