ACOSTA-ROSARIO, HUMBERTO
Name: Huberto Acosta-Rosario
Rank/Branch: E3/US Army
Unit: Company B, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry (Mechanized); 25th Infantry
Division
Date of Birth: 15 January 1947
Home City of Record: Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
Date of Loss: 22 August 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 111535N 1062023E (XT462468)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 2
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno: 1258
Other Personnel in Incident: (Philip T. DeLorenzo, Jr., killed, body recovered)
REMARKS:
Source: Compiled 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 in 1998.
SYNOPSIS: Huberto Acosta-Rosario was born January 15, 1947. His home at the
time he was lost was Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.
On August 22, 1968, PFC Acosta-Rosario was serving as a machine gunner on a
reconnaissance enforce operation when his unit came under heavy attack by North
Vietnamese Regulars and were forced to withdraw. They were in the area of Ben
Cui rubber plantation, Tay Ninh Province, near Highway 4 in Tactical Zone III.
The unit had established blocking positions in the vicinity when they came
under attack. During the withdrawal, Acosta-Rosario became separated from the
rest of his unit.
After regrouping, it was determined that PFC Acosta-Rosario and another machine
gunner, Philip T. De Lorenzo, Jr, were missing from their platoons. After
artillery and helicopters had passed suppressive fire into the area, Company B
moved back into its original position.
In the hours that followed, extensive searches were conducted by B Company. De
Lorenzo's body was located and extracted, and both men's M-60 machine guns were
found. Fresh graves in the area were investigated, but no further U.S. remains
were found. There was no other trace of Acosta-Rosario.
Two subsequent intelligence reports received and analyzed by the U.S.
Government indicate that Acosta-Rosario was captured in this operation,
although the Vietnamese continue to deny knowledge of him or his fate.
Huberto Acosta-Rosario was last seen wearing a t-shirt, jungle fatigue pants, a
steel pot and a gold Seiko watch. If he is one of the several hundred Americans
that evidence indicates are alive, he has spent all of his adult life in
captivity. His family would like to know if he is dead or if he is alive.
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