MCGAR, BRIAN KENT
Remains returned 02/97
Name: Brian Kent McGar
Rank/Branch: E3/US Army
Unit: LLRP, 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (see note in text)
Date of Birth: 17 August 1947 (Turlock CA)
Home City of Record: Ceres CA
Loss Date: 31 May 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 145215N 1085242E (BS718450)
Status (in 1973): Missing in Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno: 0715
Other Personnel In Incident: Joseph E. Fitzgerald; John A. Jakovac (both
missing)
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 in 1998.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: On May 31, 1967, PFC Brian K. McGar, PFC Joseph E. Fitzgerald,
riflemen; Sgt. John A. Jakovac, ammo bearer; Cpl. Charles G. Rogerson, and
SP4 Carl D. Flowers were members of a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol
(LRRP) deployed in Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam.
The LRRP unit was inserted to move to the base of Hill 310 and to check out
an area long a hedge row where several Viet Cong had been seen and fired
upon by gunships earlier that day. Then, at night, the patrol was to move to
the top of Hill 310 to establish an observation point. Early that afternoon,
a report was received that the patrol had established a position and
reported everything was normal.
At 2030 hours, the patrol reported that they were going to proceed to the
top of the hill to establish the observation point as briefed. Radio contact
with the patrol was lost after that, as the patrol failed to made a
scheduled report at 2145 hours.
On the morning of June 1, search elements began sweeping the area. During
the search, bodies of Rogerson and Flowers were discovered in fresh graves.
The search element also found an extended NAK-47, 5.56 and 7.62 millimeter
brass as well as hand grenade fragments. Blood trails were discovered
leading from the area. Searches conducted from June 2 through July 12 proved
unsuccessful.
There is very good reason to believe the communist government of Vietnam
knows what happened to these young men, but as yet, no word has surfaced on
them. They are among 2500 Americans who did not come home from the war in
Vietnam. As evidence continues to mount that hundreds of Americans are still
captive in Southeast Asia, the Fitzgerald, McGar and Jakovac families must
wonder if their sons are among those said to be still alive, and wonder why
they were abandoned by the country they loved.
NOTE: In April 1967 elements of the 196th Infantry Brigade, the 1st Brigade,
101st Airborne Division, and the 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division were
selected to form a provisional division-sized unit called Task Force OREGON
and then moved to the I Corps Tactical Zone where it operated in Quang Ngai
and the southern part of Quang Tin Provinces. When OREGON was replaced by
23rd Infantry Division (AMERICAL) 25 September 1967, only the 196th remained
in its descendant division. The other units were returned.
While U.S. Army records place Fitzgerald, Jakovac and McGar in 3rd Brigade,
25th Infantry Division, this unit was operating in the other end of the
country. The three therefore, must have been among the element chosen to
comprise Task Force OREGON.
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[lat0525.97 06/02/97]
Los Angeles Times
May 25, 1997
By H.G. REZA
TIMES STAFF WRITER
LA HABRA-Shirley Brown has an indelible image of the last time she saw
her son, Special Forces Staff Sgt. William T. Brown, before he left 28
years ago for Vietnam. Her husband, William, angry and crying, was
standing in, the foyer by the front door of their home demanding to know
why he had volunteered for a third combat tour.
He responded by telling them he felt it was his duty to return.
Less than six months later, on Nov. 3, 1969, Brown and two fellow U.S.
paratroopers were overrun by North Vietnamese soldiers in Laos. He and
the others were never seen again and are listed among the 2,124 U.S.
servicemen - including 208 from California and 11 from Orange County -
missing in action.
On Monday, families throughout the nation will visit cemeteries to
honor loved ones who died in America's wars. But relatives of men
listed as MlAs in Vietnam, like the Browns, will observe Memorial Day in
their hearts. There are no flag-decorated cemeteries where they can
stand by their sons, brothers or husbands.
This is the story of three families from California who have to find
their own meaning for Memorial Day.
The Browns will relive their bittersweet memory of the last time they
saw their son before he left for war, and that haunting Saturday morning
when two Army officers knocked on their door with the painful news.
Their hope that their son might still be alive is gone now, and they
will never grow accustomed to life without him. The only thing left,
they said, is closure. They want to find out exactly what happened on
that Nov. 3.
"We're not the only ones who are still asking questions," William Brown,
80, said in an interview at the couple's La Habra home. Shirley Brown,
also 80, began to cry and excused herself from the dining table. Her
husband tried choking back his own tears.
"There are a lot of parents like us who are still demanding answers
about their sons," he said. "All we get is a lot of vague answers from
the Army and the Defense Department."
The Browns and relatives of other men listed as MIAs say government
officials cannot be trusted and that their anger will resurface on
Monday when they think of the violent deaths suffered in Vietnam.
"I don't think I can ever believe my government again," said Shirley
Brown, angry that she and her husband were never told how their son
died.
"Why can't they tell us the truth?" asked William Brown.
Defense department officials declined to comment on any case and did not
provide information about specific cases. 'All inquiries were referred
to the Library of Congress. One official said he was sorry to hear that
families criticized the government, but declined to offer explanations.
Staff Sgt. Brown was 20 when he enlisted in the Army after attending
Cerritos College, where he competed in swimming and golf. He was the
youngest of three sons and graduated from La Mirada High School.
On Nov. 3,1969, he was 30 miles inside Laos when his patrol unit, made
up of three Green Berets and & Montagnard mercenaries, was overwhelmed
by North Vietnamese troops. (Montagnards are a people from the hills of
central Vietnam.) In addition to the missing Americans, two Montagnards
were killed but four escaped.
According to reports of the Montagnards, Brown was shot below the rib
cage but apparently not killed. The other two U.S. soldiers were
wounded in grenade explosions. They reported that enemy soldiers were
shouting "Capture the Americans" as they attacked.
Pentagon officials said that of 455 Americans known to have been
captured in Laos, only 12 were freed after the war.
The Browns have not been told whether their son was taken prisoner or if
he died that night.
At the time he disappeared, Brown was assigned to Military Assistance
Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group. SOG reconnaissance
teams, usually consisting of three enlisted Green Berets, performed some
of the most dangerous commando missions of the war in Laos, Cambodia and
North Vietnam.
They and a handful of local mercenaries patrolled deep behind enemy
lines to assassinate high ranking enemy officers, kidnap North
Vietnamese soldiers, tap enemy communication lines, sabotage enemy
munitions, locate enemy troops and free allied prisoners.
SOG members conducted their missions "sterile," meaning they carried no
identification, rank or unit insignia. Even their uniforms and
rucksacks were Asian made. They were required to sign an agreement
which, if they lived, prohibited them from talking about their missions
for 20 years.
The Browns said their son would not share details of his missions, but
he frequently expressed concern for the mountain tribesmen who fought
alongside Special Forces troops.
"He seemed to feel he was doing all he should to help these people out,"
Shirley Brown said.
She recalled that on three occasions she sent him a dozen pairs of blue
jeans that were distributed to the mercenary troops with whom he fought
and lived. The third shipment was returned after his death. In the last
letter the Browns received from their son, he told them he would be
going on a mission for a few days. Their last letter to him was
returned unopened.
The Browns said they are proud their son belonged to one of the most
elite units in the U.S. military.
"I don't think he is alive, but I still visualize him walking through
the front door one day telling us that he is home," said William Brown.
"I hope he is not alive because I would not want him living over there
in those conditions for this long," Shirley Brown said.
Like the Browns, the family of Army Pfc. Brian Kent McGar still has
questions about his death in a firefight described in Army reports as
"brief but intense."
McGar, who grew up in the San Joaquin Valley farming town of Ceres,
remained an MIA for 30 years until his remains were identified in
January 1997. His remains were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
"Our case had an ending. Kent's remains came home. Other families are
still waiting for an answer," said his sister, Kathy Plummer, who now
lives in Winnemucca, Nev. "But my family is very bitter with the
government and the Army. We've lost faith in both. Getting a straight
story from them was near impossible,."
Plummer said the accuracy of the government's information was
questionable and she cited a document the family received from the
Defense Department that said one of McGar's sisters was killed in
Vietnam. Neither of McGar's sisters has ever been in Vietnam.
Plummer said her brother's death in Vietnam has grown in significance
over the years, especially now that she has become a parent.
"I can't imagine what my parents must have gone through, losing a
child," she said. "My dad died two years ago, and in the last couple of
weeks, my mother was going through some boxes and found some letters
that Kent had written from Vietnam. The hurt began all over again."
McGar's mother, Charlene, who lives in Phoenix, does not talk about her
son's death and she flatly refused to read her son's unclassified
military file after the Army made a copy for the family, Plummer said.
Plummer said her brother joined the Army "to straighten out his life."
He had dropped out of high school and enlisted in December 1964 after he
turned 17.
Three years later, McGar was placed on the missing in action list.
His five-man Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol was wiped out in an ambush
May 31,1967. He had completed one tour with the 25th Infantry Division
and was ending a voluntary six-month extension when he was killed.
Before leaving on his last patrol, McGar requested a second six-month
extension.
Incident reports written by other soldiers who searched the ambush site
afterward said that hundreds of brass casings littering the area
suggested an intense firefight. About a dozen blood trails were
reported.
The bodies of two patrol members were recovered from a shallow grave the
day after the firefight.
The searchers missed a grave containing the bodies of McGar and the
other two soldiers about 100 yards from the first grave.
McGar and the two soldiers were placed on the missing in action list for
30 years, until their remains were excavated from a potato field in
1994. A team of U.S. officials recovered 89 teeth, skull fragments,
bone fragments, part of a jungle boot and a shredded belt.
Army scientists in Hawaii were able to identify McGar and the other two
men in January 1997 through DNA testing.
Plummer said the family felt relieved that her brother had "come home."
"We were among the lucky ones," she said.
But the family had trouble getting information from the Army before, she
said.
An Aug. 28, 1974, entry in McGar's file documented the family's
frustration with the Pentagon over his case. His parents "expressed
great doubt that anything at all was being done to locate (their]
son.... Request specific information in this regard in order that we may
relieve some of their anguish," said a note written by an Army major
then assigned to assist them.
The family's anguish was compounded by mistakes made by the Pentagon in
investigating her brother's case after the remains were recovered , said
Plummer, 50. The Army lost her brother's dental records, and Plummer
had to provide investigators with a copy.
"But the worst was yet to come.
When it came time for Momma to sign off on my brother's remains the
Defense Department sent her a form that had the name of another of the
soldiers who was killed and buried with McGar, Plummer said.
Her mother had been asked to sign a document that identified the remains
of Pfc. Joseph E. Fitzgerald from Northridge, Mass., as those of her
son.
Plummer said the family had known disappointment before.
In 1973, a man who lived in nearby Keyes told them he had seen their son
in a prisoner of war camp in 1967. Army investigators determined that
.he man was never a POW and had received a bad conduct discharge.
"It was terrible because for a time, that gave my father a little bit of
hope that Kent was still alive," Plummer said. "The saddest thing about
this is that Daddy died without knowing about Kent."
For Charles and Jean Ray, their hope that their son, Army Pfc. Jimmy M.
Ray, is still alive has not faded. Jimmy Ray was 18 and had been in
Vietnam four months when he was taken prisoner March 18, 1968.
The Rays, who used to live in the San Fernando Valley and Santa Maria,
have been active in MIA issues since 19'73 and guardedly discuss their
son's case.
"They [Pentagon officials] told us not to discuss his case because it
would hurt Jimmy and the other guys. They want to keep everybody quiet.
What good does it do anybody for us not to comment and say anything
about Jimmy Is case? How much more can we hurt them, 30 years later?"
asked Jean Ray, 71, in an interview from the couple's home in Port
Angeles, Wash.
Their son's case is cited repeatedly by MIA activists who believe that
American soldiers are still being held as prisoners in Indochina.
Jimmy Ray had been assigned to Military Assistance Command, Vietnam
Advisory Team 38, when he was wounded and captured by Viet Cong troops
after a firefight. First Lt. John G. Dunn was captured along with Ray.
Dunn and Ray were sent to the same POW camp in Cambodia, but later were
separated. Dunn was freed in 1973.
According to Army records, Ray died on June 11, 1969, while in
captivity. However, the Army awarded Ray a Silver Star for an escape
attempt on July 4, 1969, after his reported death.
Another report by the Pentagon's Joint Casualty Resolution Center said
Ray died on Nov. 6, 1969.
Documents given the family include "witness statements" from three
former POWs who contended they either saw Ray die or knew about his
death sometime between October and November 1969.
But when the family contacted the witnesses on their own, one wrote in a
1983 statement that "I never know [sic] or saw" Ray. Another wrote in a
similar statement in 1984 that the information about Ray's death that
was attributed to him "are not facts and not things I said or know." The
third witness wrote in July 1986 that he may have been the last American
to see Ray alive, but that he never saw him die.
"How would you want your son to be declared dead on evidence like this?"
said Charles Ray, 73.
"The point is that no American saw Jimmy die or dead. The date of death
accepted by the Pentagon is based on information given by the Viet Cong.
That's not good enough for me."
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