McMURRAY, CORDINE
Name: Cordine McMurray
Rank/Branch: E5/US Army
Unit: Company B, 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division
Date of Birth:
Home City of Record: Detroit, MI
Date of Loss: 12 Jul 1967
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 134026N 1073809E (YA850131)
Status (in 1973): Released POW
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno: 0762
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 2000.
Other Personnel In Incident: Nathan B. Henry; Martin S. Frank; Stanley A.
Newell; Richard R. Perricone (all released); James F. Schiele; James L. Van
Bendegom (both missing). Held with men from at least two other incidents
including: Incident on 18 May 1967: Joe L. DeLong (missing); Incident on 17
Feb 1967: David W. Sooter (released).
REMARKS: 730305 RELSD BY PRG
SYNOPSIS: In the spring of 1973, 591 American Prisoners of War were released
from prisons and camps in Vietnam. Among them were six of a group of nine
U.S. Army 4th Infantry Division personnel captured in and near Pleiku
Province, South Vietnam during the year of 1967 whose lives had been
intertwined for the past six years. All had belonged to that part of the
"Ivy Division" which was assigned to Task Force Oregon conducting border
operations called Operation Sam Houston (1 Jan - 5 Apr 67) and Operation
Francis Marion (5 Apr - 12 Oct 67).
On February 17, 1967, W1 David W. Sooter was the only man captured from a
OH23 helicopter downed at the southeastern edge of Kontum Province near the
edge of Pleiku Province, and near the Cambodian border.
PFC Joe Lynn DeLong was the machine gunner for his company, on a
company-sized patrol in Rotanokiri Province, Cambodia on May 18, 1967.
(Note: most records list this loss as in South Vietnam, and coordinates
place it in the Ia Drang Valley, Pleiku Province, South Vietnam near the
border of Cambodia, but U.S. Army casualty reports state that the loss was
in Kotanokiri Province, Cambodia.) While on patrol, his unit was hit by a
Viet Cong force of unknown size and cut off from the rest of the company.
DeLong's platoon formed a defensive perimeter and attempted to hold their
position. Later that day, at about 1830 hours, DeLong's platoon position was
overrun. The next morning, another unit reached his position, and was able
to account for all platoon members except for DeLong. It was later learned
that DeLong had been captured.
Nearly two months later, on July 12, 1967, SP4 Martin S. Frank, PFC Nathan
B. Henry, Sgt. Cordine McMurray, PFC Stanley A. Newell, PFC Richard R.
Perricone, SP4 James F. Schiele and PFC James L. Van Bendegom, all members
of Company B, 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division, were
conducting a search and destroy mission along the Cambodian border when
their position was overrun by the Viet Cong. With the execption of Schiele,
all the men were captured. The U.S. Army notes that Schiele and Van Bendegom
were captured by the North Vietnamese, while the others, apparently, were
captured by Viet Cong.
PFC Schiele was seen by his platoon leader as his unit was forced to
withdraw, leaving him behind. He had been hit a number of times by automatic
weapons fire in the legs and chest and was thought to be dead. PFC Perricone
stated in his debrief upon return to the U.S. that the enemy camp commander
of Camp 102 told him that SP4 Schiele had died of wounds received in the
fire fight. However, since there was no positive proof of death, the U.S.
government placed Schiele in a Missing in Action category. Classified
information given to the Vietnamese by Gen. John Vessey in 1987, however,
states that both Schiele and Van Bendegom were captured by the North
Vietnamese.
PFC Vanbendegom was also wounded in the engagement, and was seen alive by
other Americans captured in the same battle about one week after his capture
at a communist field hospital in Cambodia, not far from his capture
location. One of the released Americans was later told by the commanding
North Vietnamese officer at his prison camp in Cambodia that SP4 Vanbendegom
had died of his wounds. Vanbendegom was categorized as a Prisoner of War.
The other seven Americans were held in prison camps on the Vietnam/Cambodia
border for several months. According to the debriefs of releasees Sooter and
Perricone, they and DeLong had attempted to escape from a border camp in
Cambodia on November 6, 1967, but were recaptured the same day. Two days
later, Sooter and Perricone were shown DeLong's bullet-ridden and
blood-soaked trousers and were told that DeLong had been killed resisting
recapture. The Vietnamese included DeLong's name on a list of prisoners who
had died in captivity (saying he died in November 1967), did not return his
remains, and did not offer any explaination.
Sooter, Frank, Henry, Perricone, McMurray and Newell were all released by
the PRG in 1973. Frank was never known to be a prisoner by the U.S. Henry
was injured, and maintains a permanent disability today. The U.S. is certain
the Vietnamese also know the fates of DeLong, Schiele and Vanbendegom, but
the Vietnamese continue to remain silent.
Since the end of the war, only a few score of the many remains the
Vietnamese could provide have been returned to U.S. control. Each return of
remains signals some political move by the Vietnamese. Strong moves towards
normalization of relations began in the mid-80's, which most Americans would
not oppose. As evidence mounts that hundreds of Americans are still held
captive by these same governments the U.S. is rushing to befriend, many
concerned Americans believe that in our rush to leave Indochina, we
abandoned our best men. And that in our rush to return, we will sign their
death warrants.
Cordine McMurray retired from the United States Army as a Sergeant Major. He
lives in North Carolina.
=======================
The Detroit News
04/30/2000
Death part of POW life
Cordine McMurray and his four fellow prisoners of war were tied together by
a frail rope, literally hanging on to one another for survival.
[caption -- Behind Former Vietnam POW Cordine McMurray is the customized
ceiling in his home he said symbolizes a glimmer of hope from his life's
accomplishments. Inset, McMurray in 1973 following his release by the North
Vietnamese. credit Todd McInturf / The Detroit News]
Five years of horror came with captivity in North Vietnam
Todd McInturf / The Detroit News
Behind Former Vietnam POW Cordine McMurray is the customized ceiling in his
home he said symbolizes a glimmer of hope from his life's accomplishments.
[Inset, McMurray in 1973 following his release by the North Vietnamese.]
Cordine McMurray and his four fellow prisoners of war were tied together by
a frail rope, literally hanging on to one another for survival.
Then they almost died together.
"During the trip up north to North Vietnam, we were crossing a bamboo bridge
and one of the guys slipped. We held him up," McMurray said.
Below them was a deep river filled with big rocks.
"You could see the depth of the river and also the rocks below. Either you
would have fallen in the river and drowned, or hit the rocks and died,"
McMurray said. "If he had fallen, we all would have fallen in and drowned."
McMurray, an Army soldier, was captured by the North Vietnamese on April 12,
1967, with six other soldiers.
"Two of them died within two days of our initial capture," he said.
The days and nights of fear and horror didn't end there. McMurray spent six
years as a prisoner of war.
"I still think about the day some Air Force planes flew over us while we
were being transported by the (North Vietnamese) soldiers and just hoping
those planes didn't fire on us," said McMurray, 60, who works as a
recreation specialist at Selfridge Air National Guard base.
The sting of the United States' defeat in the war continues to anger him.
"I kind of think we gave up," said McMurray, the father of two grown sons
and two grown daughters. "Why did I stay in that prison that long?
"But the war is over. I have to get on with my life -- and that's what I'm
doing."
==================
The Detroit News
Monday, May 8, 2000
Bracelet links ex-POW, woman After years of wondering, she meets Vietnam vet
behind name on her wrist
Oralandar Brand-Williams
The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Sharon Smith has spent more than three decades wondering
whether Detroiter Cordine McMurray -- the name on her POW bracelet -- ever
made it out of Vietnam alive.
Like many Americans, Smith bought the $5 bracelet in 1967 to support
American soldiers fighting in southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.
"I always prayed -- keep him safe and bring him home," said Smith, a
57-year-old social worker from Hamburg.
Her questions were answered last week when she saw a Detroit News story
about McMurray's ordeals as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. "It really was a
quirk," said Smith, who has four grown sons and two grandchildren. "I
looked at the name and ran into my bedroom and looked into my jewelry box.
"It was him."
McMurray, an Army soldier, was a prisoner of war for five years in
Cambodia after he was captured July 12, 1967.
Smith and McMurray met for the first time Saturday. The two strangers
linked only by a silver bracelet were at a loss for words.
Both wore their POW bracelets on their right wrists.
"I never knew if you came home or what," said Smith as she delicately
touched her silver bracelet that bore McMurray's name, albeit a slight
variation in the spelling of his first name with a different date for his
capture.
McMurray, now 60 and retired, shared with Smith details of his captivity
and his painful recollections of the war in Vietnam.
"Sometimes you try to get away from it, but you know you can't -- it's
who you are," McMurray said. "I got shot up and I still have shrapnel in my
leg. It brings it back. I got shot in the shoulder and face and I got a
hand grenade in my right leg."
The war hit close to home for Smith as well.
"We lost five classmates at St. Cecilia (High School)," said Smith, a
native Detroiter whose husband served in Vietnam. McMurray has received
other POW bracelets bearing his name. He says he will mount them in a
frame.
Smith's bracelet will be among them. "It's served its purpose," she said,
as she handed over her own piece of history to McMurray.
"It's a sense of closure. There was no closure for a lot of us."
Use your Browser's BACK function to return to the PREVIOUS page