EDWARD WAYNE WILLIAMS
Unit: Headquarters/Headquarters Detachment, 37th
Signal Battalion, 1st Signal
Date of Birth: 13 September 1950 (Jacksonville FL)
Home City of Record: Clearwater FL
Date of Loss: 03 April 1972
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 164458N 1071109E (YD330530)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: UH1H
Refno: 1814
Personnel in Incident: April 2: Robin F. Gatwood;
Wayne L. Bolte; Anthony Giannangeli; Charles A.
Levis; Henry M. Serex; (all missing from the
EB66). LtCol. Iceal Hambleton (rescued after 12
days from EB66). Ronald P. Paschall; Byron K.
Kulland; John W. Frink (all missing from UH1H
rescue helicopter), Jose M. Astorga (captured and
released in 1973 from UH1H).
April 3: William J. Henderson (captured and
released in 1973 from OV10A rescue craft); Mark
Clark (rescued after 12 days from OV10A rescue
April 6: James H. Alley; Allen J. Avery; Peter H.
Chapman; John H. Call; William R. Pearson; Roy D.
Prater (all KIA/BNR from HH53C "Jolly 52" rescue
chopper). Also in very close proximity to "Bat 21"
on April 3: Allen D. Christensen; Douglas L.
O'Neil; Edward W. Williams; Larry A. Zich (all
April 7: Bruce Charles Walker (evaded 11 days);
Larry F. Potts (captured & died in POW camp)
(both missing from OV10A).
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15
March 1991 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 1998.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: On the afternoon of April 2, 1972, two
Thailand-based EB66 aircraft (Bat 21 and Bat 22),
from the 30th Air Division, were flying pathfinder
escort for a cell of B52s bombing near the DMZ.
Bat 21 took a direct SAM hit and the plane went
down. A single beeper signal was heard, that of
navigator Col. Iceal Hambleton. At this time it
was assumed the rest of the crew died in the crash.
The crew included Maj. Wayne L. Bolte, pilot; 1Lt.
Robin F. Gatwood, LtCol. Anthony R. Giannangeli,
LtCol. Charles A. Levis, and Maj. Henry M. Serex,
all crew members. It should be noted that the
lowest ranking man aboard this plane was Gatwood,
This was not an ordinary crew, and its members,
particularly Hambleton, would be a prize capture
for the enemy because of military knowledge they
possessed.
It became critical, therefore, that the U.S.
locate Hambleton, and any other surviving crew
members before the Vietnamese did - and the
Vietnamese were trying hard to find them first.
An Army search and rescue team was nearby and
dispatched two UH1H "slicks" and two UH1B "Cobras".
When they approached Hambleton's position just
before dark, at about 50 feet off the ground, with
one of the AH1G Cobra gunships flying at 300 feet
for cover, two of the helicopters were shot down.
One, the Cobra (Blue Ghost 28) reached safety and
the crew was picked up, without having seen the
other downed helicopter. The other, a UH1H from
F Troop, 8th Cavalry, 196th Brigade, had just flown
over some huts into a clearing when they
encountered ground fire, and the helicopter
exploded. Jose Astorga, the gunner, was injured in
the chest and knee by the gunfire. Astorga became
unconscious, and when he recovered, the helicopter
was on the ground. He found the pilot, 1Lt. Byron
K. Kulland, lying outside the helicopter. WO John
W. Frink, the co-pilot, was strapped in his seat
and conscious. The crew chief, SP5 Ronald P.
Paschall, was pinned by his leg in the helicopter,
but alive. WO Franks urged Astorga to leave them,
and Astorga was captured.
He soon observed the aircraft to be hit by
automatic weapons fire, and to explode with the
rest of the crew inside. He never saw the rest of
the crew again. Astorga was released by the North
Vietnamese in 1973.
The following day, Nail 38, an OV10A equipped with
electronic rescue gear enabling its crew to get a
rapid "fix" on its rescue target entered
Hambleton's area and was shot down. The crew,
William J. Henderson and Mark Clark, both
parachuted out safely. Henderson was captured and
released in 1973. Clark evaded for 12 days and was
subsequently rescued.
On April 3, the day Nail 38 was shot down, a UH1H
"slick" went down in the same area carrying a crew
of four enlisted Army personnel. They had no
direct connection to the rescue of Bat 21, but
were very probably shot down by the same SAM
installations that downed Bat 21. The helicopter,
from H/HQ, 37th Signal Battalion, 1st Signal
Brigade, had left Marble Mountain Airfield, Da
Nang, on a standard resupply mission to signal
units in and around Quang Tri City. The crew,
consisting of WO Douglas L. O'Neil, pilot; CW2
Larry A. Zich, co-pilot; SP5 Allen D. Christensen,
crew chief; and W1 Edward W. Williams, gunner;
remain missing in action.
On April 6, an attempt was made to pick up Clark
and Hambleton which resulted in an HH53C
helicopter being shot down. The chopper was badly
The helicopter landed on its side and continued
to burn, consuming the entire craft, and
presumably, all 6 men aboard. The crew of this
aircraft consisted of James H. Alley; Allen J.
Avery, John H. Call III, Peter H. Chapman, William
R. Pearson, and Roy D. Prater. Search and rescue
noted no signs of survivors, but it is felt that
the Vietnamese probably know the fate of this crew
because of the close proximity of the downed
aircraft to enemy locations.
On April 7 another Air Force OV10A went down in the
area with Larry Potts and Bruce Walker aboard.
Walker, the Air Force pilot of the aircraft,
evaded capture 11 days, while it is reported that
Potts was captured and died in Quang Binh prison.
Potts, the observer, was a Marine Corps officer.
Walker's last radio transmission to search and
rescue was for SAR not to make an attempt to
rescue, the enemy was closing in. Both men remain
unaccounted for.
Hambleton and Clark were rescued after 12
incredible days. Hambleton continually changed
positions and reported on enemy activity as he
went, even to the extent of calling in close air
strikes near his position. He was tracked by a
code he devised relating to the length and lie
direction of various golf holes he knew well.
Another 20 or so Americans were not so fortunate.
In July 1986, the daughter of Henry Serex learned
that, one week after all search and rescue had
been "called off" for Bat 21, another mission was
mounted to recover "another downed crewmember"
from Bat 21. She doesn't know whether or not it is
her father or another man on the EB66 aircraft.
No additional information has been released. When
the movie "Bat 21" was released, she was horrified
to learn that virtually no mention of the rest
of the crew, including her father, was made.
In Vietnam, to most fighting men, the man that
fought beside them, whether in the air or on the
ground, was worth dying for. Each understood that
the other would die for him if necessary. Thus,
also considering the critical knowledge possessed
by Col. Hambleton and some of the others, the
seemingly uncanny means taken to recover Clark and
Hambleton are not so unusual at all.
What defies logic and explanation, however, is
that the government that sent these men to battle
can distort or withhold information to their
families, and knowingly abandon hundreds of men
known or strongly suspected to be in enemy hands.
Thousands of reports have been received by the
U.S. Government indicating that Americans are
still alive, in captivity in Southeast Asia. It
has been 19 years for those who may have survived
the 1972 Easter crashes and rescue attempts. How
much longer must they wait for their country to
bring "peace with honor" to them and bring them
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