William Dee McGonigle

The database page for William Dee McGonigle

26 Sep 1999 IF I COULD GIVE By SSgt David A Johnson USMC (Ret) I'D GIVE MY ARMS TO REPLACE THOSE THAT HAVE HELD A DEAD COMMRADE I'D GIVE MY EARS TO REPLACE THOSE THAT HELD THE SCREAMS OF SUFFERING I'D GIVE MY NOSE TO REPLACE THE ONES ONCE FILLED WITH THE STENCH OF THE REAPER I'D GIVE MY LEGS TO REPLACE THE ONES THAT ONCE HELPED THOSE THAT STOOD TALL I'D GIVE MY EYES TO REPLACE THE ONES THAT SAW THE HORROR I'D GIVE MY HEART TO THE ONES WHO LOST A LOVED ONE AND I'D GIVE MY SOUL TO REPLACE THE ONES THAT STILL WALK IN THE KILLING FIELDS Semper Fidelis 05 May 2005 I need to contact Billy's family or Heavenly Beverly. I've been out of the loop for a bit and need to catch up with them all. I just found out that Billy has been brought back home where he belongs. Semper Fi From a friend of the family, Dave Johnson dave.johnson2@sbcglobal.net

8 May 2004 I am a 16 year old girl with a POW/MIA bracelet for PFC Willam D. McGonigle and I was just looking for information about him so if you have any it would be great. Thank you, Michelle angelsis88@yahoo.com

16 Sep 2007 I'm at NSA JRB Ft. Worth,TX for Chief Petty Officer (E-7) induction/training. I'm doing a report based on MIA/KIA military members killed from my home town, Wichita, Kansas. I was reading his bio from the Vietnam War and I was intrigued by him and other news articles about the brave men who lost their lives defending the camp and the rescue effort to abandon the camp. The article really moved me. Navy Chief, Navy Pride. All one military, all one fight. Very Respectfully, ITC Michael A. Ferland Naval Operational Support Command (NOSC) Wichita, Kansas michael.ferland@navy.mil

A Note from The Virtual Wall In the spring of 1968 the North Vietnamese Army's 2nd Division was enroute to South Vietnam, moving down the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos. By early May, the division's advance regiments - the 1st and 2nd Regiments - had entered South Vietnam using the French-built Route 14 which passed by the old French fort at Ngok Tavak. The NVA commanders decided that Ngok Tavak and the main Special Forces camp at Kham Duc had to go. Beginning at about 0300 on 10 May 1968, Ngok Tavak came under heavy attack by a North Vietnamese Army infantry battalion, an element of the 2nd NVA Regiment. In a pitched battle, the small force of defenders staved off immediate defeat, but by noon on 10 May it was clear that Ngok Tavak would have to be abandoned. Surrounded on three sides by the 2nd NVA Regiment, it was clear the withdrawal would have to be by foot moving to the north - the attacking force had made a helicopter evacuation impossible. After destroying equipment and supplies which could not be carried out, the survivors began the move to the main camp at Kham Duc, proceeding along a lane flanked by near-continuous air strikes. They were picked up by helicopter midway to Kham Duc, arriving at the camp at about 2100 (9 PM) on 10 May. The defending force at Ngok Tavak had incurred numerous losses in both known dead and missing soldiers and Marines: HMM-265, MAG-16, 1st MAW: Major Horace H. Fleming, Pensacola, FL D Btry, 2nd Bn, 13th Marines, 1st MarDiv: SSgt Thomas C. Schriver, Salem, OR * Cpl Gerald E. King, Knoxville, TN LCpl Joseph F. Cook, Foxboro, MA LCpl Thomas W. Fritsch, Cromwell, CT LCpl Raymond T. Heyne, Mason, WI LCpl Donald W. Mitchell, Princeton, KY LCpl James R. Sargent, Anawalt, WV LCpl Verle J. Skidmore, Terreton, ID * Pfc Thomas J. Blackman, Racine, WI (Silver Star) Pfc Paul S. Czerwonka, Stoughton, MA Pfc Barry L. Hempel, Garden Grove, CA Pfc Robert C. Lopez, Albuquerque, NM Pfc William D. McGonigle, Wichita, KS Det A-105 (Ngok Tavak), C Co, 5th Special Forces Group: SFC Thomas H. Perry, Canton, CT SGT Glenn E. Miller, Oakland, CA The bodies of the two men marked with asterisks above were brought out during the retreat from Ngok Tavak; the other 14 Americans could not be recovered. In a sense, the survivors of Ngok Tavok jumped from the frying pan into the fire - Kham Duc itself was under heavy attack. What happened next is covered on The Virtual Wall's Kham Duc memorial. The following text is exerpted from the 2nd Bn, 13th Marines' Command Chronology for May 1968; it addresses the D Battery detachment sent to Ngok Tavak: Several pages further on is a list of the 43 Marines and one Navy Corpsman in the detachment; of the 44, 13 were dead (11 not recovered); 18 wounded had been medevaced by helo; and 13 moved out by ground with the other survivors. The detachment was recommended for a Meritorious Unit Citation; a portion of the text notes that "During the helicopter evacuation, members of the Detachment voluntarily remained on the ground to provide security until the rest of the survivors had been extracted and the last helo was ready to depart." U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) No. 820-05 Aug 10, 2005 IMMEDIATE RELEASE Twelve MIAS from Vietnam War are Identified The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today the identification of the remains of 12 U. S. servicemen missing in action from the Vietnam War. Five of those identified are being returned to their families for burial, and the remaining seven will be buried as a group in Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D. C. The men who were individually identified are: Cpl. Gerald E. King, of Knoxville, Tenn.; Lance Cpls. Joseph F. Cook, of Foxboro, Mass.; Raymond T. Heyne, of Mason, Wis.; Donald W. Mitchell, of Princeton, Ky.; and Thomas W. Fritsch, of Cromwell, Conn., all of the U. S. Marine Corps. Additional group remains are those of: Pfcs. Thomas J. Blackman, of Racine, Wis.; Paul S. Czerwonka, of Stoughton, Mass.; Barry L. Hempel, of Garden Grove, Calif.; Robert C. Lopez, of Albuquerque, N. M.; William D. McGonigle, of Wichita, Kan.; and Lance Cpl. James R. Sargent, of Anawalt, W. Va., all of the U. S. Marine Corps. Additionally, the remains of U. S. Army Sgt. Glenn E. Miller, of Oakland, Calif. will be included in the group burial. The Marines were part of an artillery platoon airlifted to provide support to the 11th Mobile Strike Force, which was under threat of attack from North Vietnamese forces near Kham Duc in South Vietnam. On May 9, 1968, the Strike Force had been directed to reconnoiter an area known as Little Ngok Tavak Hill near the Laos-Vietnam border, in the Kham Duc Province. Their base came under attack by North Vietnamese Army troops, and after a 10-hour battle, all of the survivors were able to withdraw from the area. Six investigations beginning in 1993 and a series of interviews of villagers and former Vietnamese soldiers led U. S. recovery teams in 1994, 1997 and 1998 to specific defensive positions within the large battle site. Additionally, maps provided by American survivors helped to locate some key areas on the battlefield. Three excavations by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in 1998 and 1999 yielded human remains, personal effects and other material evidence. JPAC scientists and Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory specialists used mitochondrial DNA as one of the forensic tools to help identify the remains.

Top of Page www.VirtualWall.org Back to To alpha index M KS State Index . Panel 58E 13TH MARINES Index Contact Us

With all respect
Jim Schueckler, former CW2, US Army
Ken Davis, Commander, United States Navy (Ret)
Memorial first published on 26 Sep 1999
Last updated 08/10/2009