B co. 704th Maint. BN. service and evac section at LZ OASIS, 23 miles southwest of Pleiku, Base Camp Enari

Mother's Day, May 11, 1969 - I'll never forget the night we were hit by a battalion size NVA force on Mother's Day, 1969. They overran some of the "O" that night. The first thing that took place was three men in a Listening Post outside of our wire came up missing. All I heard about them was they found one of their wallets near the bunker line area where the men were taken POW.

Fred, a friend, and I were humping ammo to our farthest bunker. The Listening Post was just out in the wire right by the bunker. We could see some tracers coming from the south side and later found out NVA had taken a bunker and was firing the 50 on it back our way.

The airstrip is where a good portion of the ground attack occurred. The third brigade barber was killed in the attack. We found little maps of different sections and areas of the "O" on the bodies of the attackers. Where we watched movies is the area they had prepped for a mortar attack.

The morning after the attack as we went over towards our mess hall, and right beside the mess hall was the helipad and 4th Med's underground medical room. There were eleven green body bags lying there, and a chopper was approaching to pick them up. That image was burned in my mind forever. I figured those guys taken POW were probably killed, but still I wondered. I didn't personally know these guys, nevertheless, not a day went by the last 29+ years that I didn't have a fleeting thought of them.

Well time has come and gone. As tome passed I looked at the POW-MIA issue like probably many have, thinking, well some will never be found, maybe others just checked out like the guy in New Zealand. For years, I hadn't much of an urge to go to The Wall. I was even in D.C. once and didn't go. I came to think that whole Mother's Day issue was closed in my life. Well, last spring after Mother's Day I started to think of those three POW-guys quite a bit. And in the summer, The Moving Wall was here and I felt badly for not even knowing the names of the LZ Oasis POWs. I guess that is what got me going on finding out.

So I joined the 4th Infantry Div. Assoc. and the first "Ivy Leaves" I get had the POW incident in it (pg. 45 Oasis, May 1969, Sept. 1997 issue)! That got my attention! A guy from England doing research with some guys from 1/10 Cav., and was looking for information. He didn't serve in Nam, but was researching the action that long ago Mother's Day. Well, I wrote him and found out that the three men taken POW were released in Operation Homecoming! The researcher said he would try to get their names.

Meanwhile, I was searching sites on the net and came across JR Wright's Company 'C' 227th Assault Helicopter Battalion, First Cavalry Division site. JR had a section titled The Oasis. So I spent some time there, and on one of his links I went some POW information. One was Returned Army POW's. I went down through the list and there were three POWs returned that were POW on Mother's Day, 5/11/69! POWs Thomas Horio, Lenard Daugherty, and Juan Jacquez were Free!

I got on the search engines and found a name and address for only one and a phone number. I called and Thomas Horio was one of the POWs! It was so great to talk to him and know life was going well for him! I continued looking for the others and found Lenard Daugherty and talked to him too! I was touched very deeply by their stories. Hopefully this May, I'll be able to take some vacation and stop and meet both of them.

From JR Wright's site, a guy named Joe Semancheck e-mailed me and told of Pat Camunes' From The Other Side story posted at Don Poss' War Stories!. I immediately went there and read Pat's story, and was blessed. What got me the most about the story, was the Mother at The Wall. I thought of those eleven bodybags and the eleven mothers on that Mother's Day so long ago, and of course the three POW's. And now as I think of those POW-MIAs yet missing--- and then of how those who have loved ones still missing must feel. I know how happy I was about the LZ Oasis POWs return, and I ache for those not knowing about their loved ones.

I have rekindled my POW-MIA thoughts that yes, if just one is still alive, HE MUST BE--NEEDS TO BE--RETURNED. I never forgot that night, and I'm glad I hadn't because I wouldn't have found a peace of sorts to my late-night questions: "Wonder what happened to those three POW guys?" Well, they are home ... and I thank God for it!

Thanks to Don Poss, and Pat Camunes, and guys like JR Wright and Joe Semancheck who have Remembered also! Thank you, thank you much for War Stories!.

As far as the men KIA that night, I don't have any names. Some were with 1/10th Cav., C troop I think. Others might have been with 1/69th armor, 3rd Brigade HQ was there, 5/16th arty, probably 2/8, 2/9, 4th MP, 4th Med. Any or all of these units were there.