‍Recon Team Breaker, Hill Battles of Vietnam

‍

‍“Scarface, this is Breaker. We're burning. You gotta get us out!”

‍

‍Breaker Patrol KIA return home

‍

‍Recall that the Breaker had to leave four of its men behind. US members of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) initiated a search for these men in 1993. The Breaker Marines were hard to locate. Hill 665 endured heavy damage during the Vietnam War, from bombing, artillery, scavengers, and the weather.

‍

‍The Joint Task Force (JTF), trying to recover Breaker's remains, searched the lower slopes instead of the hilltop. Nothing was found because it had the wrong coordinates. Ron Zaczek mentioned that Hill 665 is about ten kilometers northwest of Khe Sanh. USAF Master Sgt. Jay Ebert researched RT Breaker and found that the original mission coordinates had been changed twice in Marine archives, once to a location due north of Khe Sanh and once to the northeast, both of which were incorrect.

‍ 

‍A local villager found boots on top of the hill in 1998, but the JPAC investigation was limited, and the workload was heavy. Zaczek worked with JPAC, insisting that the Scarface crew retrieved the survivors from the hilltop, and he marked the location on a topographic map.

‍

‍An anthropologist, Sam Connell, who specializes in ancient Maya and Inca civilizations, joined JPAC in 2002 to lead excavation teams. He and his team found four pairs of boots, then eleven. However, it turned out that an artillery unit from the 101st Airborne Division occupied the hill in 1968, leaving behind a lot of debris—C-ration containers, combs, toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, bits of socks, artillery casings, and sandbags.

‍

‍Connell hired some 50 villagers to sift through the dirt. They found all kinds of things. After two weeks, they came across 31 individual teeth or tooth fragments, plus bone fragments. Connell knew right away these were not Asian teeth; the incisors were not right, nor were the dental fillings.

‍

‍Breaker and other remains, locked in small black containers, were repatriated in May 2003 from Danang, Vietnam. Once in Hawaii, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) was able to identify three of the four Breaker men. 

‍

‍Eleven of the teeth belonged to HM3 Miller; three belonged to Sgt. Tycz; Lt. Ahlmeyer, Jr. was identified from a single tooth filling found at the site. 

‍

‍The Joint Task Force (JTF) in Vietnam, searching sites for POW/MIA, returned to Hill 665 in 2004, continued digging, and recovered remains that identified the fourth man, L/Cpl Sharp.

‍

‍The identifications were announced in February 2005.

‍

‍In her article entitled "The Last Goodbye," published by the Washington Post on May 10, 2005, Lynne Duke wrote this about these Marines' return home:

‍

‍"The four flag-draped caskets arrived Sunday (May 8, 2005) at Dulles International Airport on a United Airlines flight from Hawaii. Four hearses awaited them. Military escorts saluted. 

‍

‍"The caskets of Ahlmeyer, Tycz, and Miller each contained a folded green blanket. Wrapped inside were a few teeth, positively linked to each man by the JPAC. Atop the blanket lay a dress-blue uniform, pressed and laid out with all their ribbons and decorations. Sharp's remains were put to rest beside his father last month in San Jose. The fourth casket at Dulles represented the group and held teeth and bone fragments found on Hill 665 that were circumstantially linked to the four men. 

‍

‍"The hearses left Dulles in a convoy, carrying the dead from a long-ago war." 

‍

‍These are photos of the burial ceremonies at Arlington for the "Breaker Four." They were presented by Arlington Cemetery.

‍

‍After the Hill Battles of 1967 and the four-month Siege of Khe Sanh of 1968, General Creighton Abrams, USA, the newly appointed Commander MACV, decided to abandon Khe Sanh. They did so during June and July 1968.

‍

‍On October 9, 1968, elements of Kilo Company, 4th Marines, held an official ceremony paying tribute to those who served and lost their lives at Khe Sanh.

‍

‍Return to Introduction