A friend, Mike Archer, who served at Khe Sanh during the siege, is looking for information about the remains of his friend L/CplThomas Mahoney, Bravo Co. 1/1 KIA on 6 July 1968 at Hill 881S.(Coordinates 48Q XD 773 441) Bravo company was involved in the evacuation of the Marine positions in that area. Mahoney had gone outside the perimeter and was killed by a PAVN sniper/recon team, which put his body in front of their position in order to draw more Americans into an ambush. In the ensuing fight, Mahoney's body was lost. Archer has gotten information from reports of the US-MIA teams in country about who was in the PAVN unit, but has been unable to find any of them. In the meantime, he sent the following message. "A rumor that circulated around B/1/1 HQ in early August 1968, that a Marine recon team deployed to the spot of Mahoney's death about a week later and recovered some remains from a shallow grave. The supposition is that these "remains" (if, in fact, the story is true) were never identified as Tom's, and perhaps misplaced or misidentified by an undetermined Graves Registration detachment. The account of this "recovery" is not documented in any unit record that I have been able to locate. The only record of it is a statement I obtained from Tom's company CO who recalled the battalion S-1 officer mentioning it to him in passing. The S-1 officer is now deceased. I am writing the USMC Historical Branch today to see if they can provide any chopper flight records (I don't even know the squadron) or a recon after-action report (don't know unit) or Graves Registration (don't know unit) records that might exist about this action."
If any Popasmoke members have any information or memory of this, please contact me. Wayne Karlin